Houthis claim the danger area ‘expanding’ so more ships to be attacked

After 8 days of attack-free shipping—a very temporary relief—attacks seem to have resumed in the past week with UK Maritime Trade Operations confirming two attacks on vessels, most recently 

111km south-west of Al Hudaydah, Yemen.  

UKMTO said: “The master of a vessel has reported two missiles in the vicinity. The first was intercepted by coalition forces, the second impacted the water a distance from the vessel. The vessel reports no damage, and the crew is reported safe. The vessel is proceeding to next port of call.” 

Meanwhile, Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said on TV 8 April that during the past 72 hours, Houthis had targeted a British ship and several US frigates in the Red Sea. He also said they had attacked two Israeli vessels in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean that were heading to Israeli ports.  

The Times of Israel reported that, according to Mr Saree, the attacks included a missile strike against British ship Hope Island, and what Mr Saree described as “two Israeli ships”, MSC Grace and MSC Gina.

But Lars Jensen CEO of Vespucci Maritime, does not seem to support the idea of attacks on two vessels; he argues that this could have either be propaganda to make the Houthis appear more resourceful – the targeting was so poor that the vessels in question never even saw the attack – or that the attacks were indeed real and close, but for some reason the intended targets chose not to publicly report them. 

He added: “Another option could be that the Houthis are simply claiming this without any factual basis, in the hope that the threat alone would cause more ships to start avoiding the area, and hence expand their de facto vessel blockade to a larger area.”