Yemen’s Armed Forces announced on 9 June several operations in the Red and Arabian Seas, including the targeting of a UK warship.
The operations were carried out as a response to Israel’s massacre in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp on 8 June, which killed nearly 300 Palestinian civilians during an operation to retrieve four living Israeli captives.
“In response to the Zionist enemy’s crime in the Nuseirat camp yesterday … The missile force carried out a military operation targeting the British warship destroyer (Diamond) in the Red Sea with a number of ballistic missiles, and the hit was accurate,” said army spokesman Yahya Saree.
“The naval forces, missile force, and unmanned air force of the Yemeni [army] also carried out two joint military operations against two ships belonging to companies that violated the decision to ban access to the ports of occupied Palestine. They are the NORDERNEY ship, which was directly hit, causing a fire to break out, and the MSC TAVVISHI ship, in the Arabian Sea, which was directly hit,” Saree added.
“The two operations were carried out with a number of naval and ballistic missiles and drones.”
The UK maritime security firm Ambrey reported on Sunday that a cargo transport vessel flying the flag of Antigua and Barbuda was hit by a missile 83 nautical miles southeast of Yemen’s Aden. The British Maritime Trade Operations Authority reported on Saturday another incident on a ship 80 nautical miles southeast of Aden.
Saree’s announcement came a day after 274 Palestinians were killed and nearly 700 injured during an Israeli military operation to rescue captives in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. Israeli undercover units, aided by US forces, infiltrated Nuseirat disguised as displaced civilians and using an aid truck as cover before indiscriminate bombardment wreaked havoc upon the camp
Four prisoners were retrieved alive, and one Israeli officer was killed. The spokesman for Hamas’ Qassam Brigades said a number of Israeli captives were killed in the operation.
As part of the naval campaign waged by the Ansarallah movement and the armed forces of Yemen’s Sanaa government in solidarity with the people and resistance in Gaza, Yemeni forces have recently expanded their operations against Israeli maritime interests to include the Mediterranean Sea.
Hellbound and Down 