Houthi menace: Yemeni militant group claims strike on Greek-owned ship that reported no attack

Houthi militants have claimed an attack on a Greek-controlled bulker in the Red Sea, but the ship’s owner says it experienced no attack.

The group, which dubs itself the Yemeni Armed Forces, said an operation targeted a ship called the “Destiny”.

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“The hit was accurate, thanks to Allah,” the group said, according to a machine translation of the statement.

The group said the joint operation involved missiles, naval forces and the air force.

The statement included a photo of the 29,200-dwt Destiny (built 2010), a handysize bulk carrier owned by Greece’s Cosmoship Management.

However, Cosmoship’s managing director, Nikos Savvas, told TradeWinds that the vessel did pass through the region but reported no attack.

“Nothing happened to the ship,” he said.

The Houthi armed forces said in their statement, which was posted on the group’s website, that they targeted the ship for using “deception and camouflage” to travel to the Israeli port of Eliat.

The Destiny last broadcast a location 27 days ago in the Red Sea off the Saudi port of Jeddah, showing its destination as Aqaba in Jordan, according to tracking data from VesselsValue.

Savvas could not immediately be reached after business hours when TradeWinds phoned a second time to ask about the claim that the ship quietly called in Israel.

The Houthis, who control large swathes of Yemen, have attacked more than 100 vessels since November, trying to pressure Israel to halt the war in Gaza.

“These operations will not stop except by lifting the siege and stopping the aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” it said.

The Houthi military also claimed to have targeted the US Navy’s guided-missile destroyer USS Mason, scoring an accurate hit.

Press contacts for the Pentagon and US Central Command, which coordinates US armed forces in the region, could not be immediately reached for comment, and there have been no official reports of an attack from coalition military channels.