“We launched a military operation against a British ship, Lycavitos,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sariya said in a statement broadcast on the group's al-Masirah satellite TV channel on Thursday. According to the information, the Houthi group fired several missiles, which hit the ship directly and accurately. The Barbados-flagged ship Liquitos was sailing east of Aden in the Indian Ocean when it was attacked by a missile, a Yemeni government coast guard official said on condition of anonymity.
“The missile attack damaged the ship's diesel generator pipe, causing leakage of diesel,” the official said. All crew members are safe in this incident. Earlier in the day, the UK Maritime Operations Authority said it had received reports of an explosion about 85 nautical miles east of Aden. The captain of the ship said that the ship was heading towards its next port and all the crew members were safe.
“Until the attacks on Gaza stop and the siege on the Palestinian people is lifted, we will continue to attack Israeli ships or Israeli ports in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. We will continue to attack our country against the US – “We are in the process of reaffirming our pragmatic position to take further military action in response to British aggression and to support the Palestinian people,” he said. Meanwhile, according to a TV channel report, American and British forces on Thursday carried out fresh air strikes on Yemen's Night Sea port city of Hodeidah.
The air strikes targeted the al-Jahh area of Beit al-Faqih district, south of Hodeidah, and the al-Jaab area in the northern part of the port city, the report said, without giving further details. Yemen's Houthi group has been attacking Israeli-allied ships in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait since last November in a show of solidarity with Hamas, which has been fighting Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since last October.