A French frigate shepherding container ships through the Red Sea shot down three ballistic missiles in a single incident on Thursday.
The European Union force deployed in the region said in a social media post that the unidentified war vessel “was providing close protection to merchant shipping” while intercepting and destroying the incoming missiles.
In separate, later statements, the French defence ministry and EUNAVFOR clarified that the ship was a frigate and that it was accompanying an unidentified container vessel.
The three projectiles were targeting the convoy’s position and the frigate “reacted in legitimate self-defence”, the French statement said.
No other maritime security sources have reported any information about attacks in the Red Sea on 21 March.
The density of the strike, with three ballistic missiles fired in a single incident on Thursday morning, represents a further escalation in the Houthi campaign.
The only container ships visible by vessel trackers in the southern Red Sea, where the attack took place, belong to interests based in Switzerland, Germany, Greece, China, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
In an updated list of incidents released on Wednesday, the EU’s EUNAVFOR Aspides force counted 121 separate cases of Houthi attacks, harassments or hijackings of transiting commercial vessels or patrolling warships in the region since mid-November.
More than 70 of those incidents targeted commercial ships underway in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. They came as part of the Yemeni group’s campaign to force Israel and its Western allies to pull back on the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
