Hours after the U.S. military announced it had intercepted a missile fired by the Houthis over the Gulf of Aden, a maritime authority reported an explosion near a ship off the Yemeni coasts of Aden. The British Maritime Trade Operations agency indicated today, Thursday, that the captain of a ship reported hearing a loud bang followed by a splash and smoke rising from the sea 15 miles southwest of Aden. It also clarified in a brief statement posted on its account on the platform "X" that military entities are assisting in protecting the ship that was attacked off Aden. Meanwhile, the French Ministry of Defense announced that its forces, as part of the "Aspidis" mission to protect ships and shipping in this internationally significant waterway, targeted a Houthi drone in the Red Sea today.
This came less than 24 hours after the U.S. Central Command announced that a coalition ship successfully intercepted an anti-ship ballistic missile launched from "areas controlled by the Houthis in Yemen over the Gulf of Aden." They added that the missile was likely targeting the MV Yorktown, an American-flagged vessel owned and operated by an American company, with a crew consisting of 18 Americans and four Greeks. Furthermore, they noted separately that they "successfully engaged and destroyed four drones" over Houthi-held areas. Meanwhile, Houthi military spokesperson Yahiya Saree announced yesterday that the Iranian-backed Yemeni group attacked two American ships and one Israeli ship in the first such attack in more than two weeks.
