Yemen’s Houthi rebels will expand their missile operations to strike Israeli-linked ships in the Indian Ocean heading to the Cape of Good Hope, their leader warns.
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said the Iran-backed group had already begun planning to attack ships that had diverted from the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, its main area of operations since mid-November.
“Our main battle is to prevent ships linked to the Israeli enemy from passing through not only the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, but also the Indian Ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope,” he said in a televised speech, according to Reuters.
“This is a major step and we have begun to implement our operations related to it.”
The comments were made on Thursday before a merchant vessel was hit by a Houthi missile in the latest attack in the Red Sea north-west of Hodeidah, Yemen.
UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said the unnamed ship sustained damage in the attack early on Friday but the crew were safe and the ship was continuing to its next port of call.
Recent weeks have seen a bulker sink after a Houthi attack, followed by the first fatal strike on a cargo ship. Three crew members were killed on the Barbados-flagged, 50,448-dwt bulker True Confidence (built 2011).
The planned expansion of the Houthi attacks seeks to target ships that have headed south to avoid the Red Sea since the campaign of attacks on commercial shipping began.
Shipping through the Suez Canal is down 62% year on year in the first 10 days of March, according to PortWatch, a joint initiative by the International Monetary Fund and Oxford University. Transit volumes at the Cape of Good Hope increased by 108% over the same period, it said.
The attacks prompted US and UK missile attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen. Al-Houthi said that 34 militia members had been killed since the group started its attacks.
They include fighters killed by American forces as they tried to attack an AP Moller-Maersk container ship on 30 December. The US military sank three small boats being used by the fighters to attack the 15,200-teu Maersk Hangzhou (built 2018).
The Houthis have said they are singling out ships linked to Israel or its allies in an attempt to halt Israel’s assault on Gaza.
But some of the ships targeted during dozens of attacks appear to have no current US or Israeli links. The Houthis seem to be using out-of-date information.
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