Suspected Attack by Yemen’s Houthis Targets Ship in Gulf of Aden

Houthi supporters chant slogans during a protest against the US and Israel, and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, in Sanaa, Yemen, 15 March 2024. (EPA)
Houthi supporters chant slogans during a protest against the US and Israel, and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, in Sanaa, Yemen, 15 March 2024. (EPA)
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Suspected Attack by Yemen’s Houthis Targets Ship in Gulf of Aden

Houthi supporters chant slogans during a protest against the US and Israel, and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, in Sanaa, Yemen, 15 March 2024. (EPA)
Houthi supporters chant slogans during a protest against the US and Israel, and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, in Sanaa, Yemen, 15 March 2024. (EPA)

A suspected attack by Yemen's Houthi militias saw an explosive detonate near a ship early Sunday in the Gulf of Aden, potentially marking their latest assault on shipping through the crucial waterway leading to the Red Sea.

The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the vessel's crew saw the blast as it passed off the coast of Aden, the port city in southern Yemen home to the country's legitimate government.

“No damage to the vessel has been reported and the crew are reported safe,” UKMTO said.

The Houthis have launched repeated drone and missile attacks in the same area, disrupting energy and cargo shipments through the Gulf of Aden.

The militias did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack, though it typically takes the Houthis several hours before acknowledging their assaults.

Separately, the US military's Central Command said it carried out a series of strikes targeting the Houthis. It said it destroyed five drone boats and one drone before takeoff from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen on Saturday. It was an unusually high number of drone boats to be destroyed.

The US military also shot down one Houthi drone over the Red Sea, while another was “presumed to have crashed.”

“There were no reports of damage or injuries from ships in the vicinity,” Central Command said.

The Houthis have attacked ships since November, saying they want to force Israel to end its offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas.

The ships targeted by the Houthis, however, largely have had little or no connection to Israel, the US or other nations involved in the war. The militias have also fired missiles toward Israel, though they have largely fallen short or been intercepted.

Earlier in March, a Houthi missile struck a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden, killing three of its crew members and forcing survivors to abandon the vessel. It marked the first fatal attack by the Houthis on shipping.

Other recent Houthi actions include an attack last month on a cargo ship carrying fertilizer that later sank after drifting for several days.



US to Eventually Reduce Military Bases in Syria to One, Says US Envoy

A US patrol in Qamishli’s countryside in Hasakah on April 20, 2022. (AFP)
A US patrol in Qamishli’s countryside in Hasakah on April 20, 2022. (AFP)
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US to Eventually Reduce Military Bases in Syria to One, Says US Envoy

A US patrol in Qamishli’s countryside in Hasakah on April 20, 2022. (AFP)
A US patrol in Qamishli’s countryside in Hasakah on April 20, 2022. (AFP)

The United States has begun reducing its military presence in Syria with a view to eventually closing all but one of its bases there, the US envoy for the country has said in an interview.

Six months after the ouster of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, the United States is steadily drawing down its presence as part of Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), a military task force launched in 2014 to fight the ISIS.

"The reduction of our OIR engagement on a military basis is happening," the US envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, said in an interview with Türkiye's NTV late on Monday.

"We've gone from eight bases to five to three. We'll eventually go to one."

But he admitted Syria still faced major security challenges under interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose coalition toppled Assad in December.

Assad's ouster brought an end to Syria's bloody 14-year civil war, but the new authorities have struggled to contain recent bouts of sectarian violence.

Barrack, who is also the US ambassador to Turkey, called for the "integration" of the country's ethnic and religious groups.

"It's very tribal still. It's very difficult to bring it together," he said.

But "I think that will happen," he added.

The Pentagon announced in April that the United States would halve its troops in Syria to less than 1,000 in the coming months, saying the ISIS presence had been reduced to "remnants".