Greek-owned cargo ship targeted by two missile strikes in Red Sea near Yemen

Missile attacks twice damaged a Marshall Islands-flagged, Greek-owned ship Tuesday in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, with a private security firm saying radio traffic suggested the vessel took on water after being struck. The strikes are thought to have been the work of Houthi rebels, who claim to be intercepting and attacking ships in support of the Palestinian people.

The first attack on the bulk carrier Laax happened off the port city of Hodeida in the southern Red Sea, near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that links it to the Gulf of Aden, according to the UK military’s Maritime Trade Operations centre (UKMTO). The vessel “sustained damage” in the assault and later reported an “impact in the water in close proximity to the vessel,” the UKMTO said.

Late on Tuesday night, the UKMTO reported the Laax “sustained further damage” in a second missile attack near Mokha in the Bab el-Mandeb. The US military’s Central Command also identified the targeted ship as the Laax. The vessel reported being headed to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

The Houthis have launched attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in recent months, demanding that Israel ends the war in Gaza, in which more than 36,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed. The rebels have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the United States Maritime Administration.

Yemen has been wracked by conflict since the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war on the side of Yemen’s exiled government in 2015, but the conflict has been stalemated for years as Riyadh tries to reach a peace deal with the Houthis.