A missile fired from Yemen hit a merchant ship, British maritime security company Ambrey announced today, after the Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for an attack on an American vessel.

“According to our information, a commercial ship was targeted by a ‘missile’ while moving (…) off Aden, Yemen,” Ambrey said, adding that the crew spoke of an “explosion” on board.

“Ambrey has been informed that this missile was launched (…) from Taiz,” a province in southern Yemen, the company added.

Yesterday Wednesday, the Iran-backed Houthis announced that they had fired missiles at an American merchant ship, which they identified as the KOI, and which they said was bound for an Israeli port.

Yahya Shari, a spokesman for the rebels, assured via social networking sites that there had been a “direct hit on the ship” in the Gulf of Aden.

According to Reuters, citing data from the merchant shipping sector, the KOI is a Liberian-flagged container ship operated by Britain-based shipping company Oceonix Services. The company’s fleet also includes the oil tanker Marlin Luanda, which was damaged when it was hit by a missile in the same area on Saturday, according to the news agency.

The Houthis, who control almost all of northern Yemen, have launched more than 35 attacks against ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since Nov. 19, according to the US Pentagon, hampering shipping in this area crucial to the world trade.

The rebels, close to Tehran, say they aim to block ships linked to Israel from passing through waters off Yemen in a show of “solidarity” with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where the Israel-Hamas war has been raging since on the 7th of October.

Their attacks have prompted major shipping companies to order their ships to avoid the sea route to the Suez Canal—through which about 12 percent of world trade normally passes—and to circumnavigate Africa, becoming sea ​​transport much more time-consuming and expensive.

The US, Israel’s main ally, has deployed warships to the Red Sea to protect merchant ships and launched a series of strikes against Houthi positions in January, in some cases alongside Britain.

Yesterday, the US armed forces destroyed a Houthi surface-to-air missile, which was “ready to launch and posed an immediate threat to US aircraft”, according to a post on X (the former Twitter) of the joint command of the US armed forces which is responsible for the Middle East region (CENTCOM, “central command”).

And last Tuesday night, the US destroyer USS Gravely (DDG 107) “shot down” a cruise missile “launched by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels” against it.