S’pore-flagged container ship struck by projectiles off Yemen coast by Houthis; no S’poreans on board

DUBAI - Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on July 19 that they struck a Singapore-flagged vessel with missiles and drones because its owner had docked ships in Israeli ports.

The July 19 attack was confirmed by maritime security company Ambrey, which said “a Singapore-flagged container ship was ‘hit’ by projectiles” south-east of the Yemeni port city of Aden.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore identified the container ship as the Lobivia, saying the attack caused a fire which has since been extinguished, and that “there are no Singaporeans on board”.

“All crew are accounted for and are safe,” it said in a statement, adding that the ship had sailed “under her own propulsion” to Berbera Port in the breakaway Somaliland region of Somalia to assess the damage and determine necessary repairs.

Houthi rebels have attacked at least 88 commercial vessels since their anti-shipping campaign started in November 2023, according to a tally compiled by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think-tank.

Houthi attacks have prompted some shipping companies to detour around southern Africa to avoid the Red Sea, a vital route that normally carries about 12 per cent of global trade.

Egypt’s Suez Canal on July 18 reported a 23.4 per cent drop in revenues attributed to disruptions in Red Sea shipping in the past year.

Separately, the Houthis also claimed a drone attack on Tel Aviv on July 19 that left one person dead, saying it marked a “new phase” in their operations against Israel.

The rebels fired a “new drone called ‘Yafa’, which is capable of bypassing the enemy’s interception systems”, their spokesman Yahya Saree said on social media.

It struck “one of the important targets in the occupied Jaffa region, what is now called Israeli Tel Aviv”, he said, adding that “the operation has achieved its goals successfully”.

The Israeli authorities said an explosion hit an apartment building in Tel Aviv at 3.12am local time, killing one person and wounding four others.

The Israeli army said the blast was “caused by the falling of an aerial target”, based on an initial inquiry. An Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity said a “very big” drone had been detected, but the alarm was not immediately raised because of “human error”.

The Houthis have pledged to turn Tel Aviv into a “primary target” after months of drone and missile attacks targeting shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in response to the Gaza war.

Mr Hezam Al Asad, a member of the rebel movement’s politburo, called the strike “unprecedented”.

In an interview with pro-Iranian channel Al Mayadeen, he said the attack marked a “new phase” of operations against Israel, which would increase in the coming period.

Mr Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, another Houthi politburo member, said attacks would stop only if a Gaza ceasefire was reached.

“Our demand is fair: Stop the genocide in Gaza, lift the siege on its residents, and we will stop our military operations,” he said on social media platform X, sharing footage of the aftermath of the drone strike.

Top Houthi official Mohamed Ali al-Huthi said the “first operation” to strike Tel Aviv marked a “qualitative shift” in the group’s anti-Israel campaign.

The Houthis have previously claimed attacks targeting the southern Israeli resort of Eilat and port cities of Ashdod and Haifa, but July 19’s strike is the first operation claimed by the rebels against Tel Aviv.

The Houthis’ military spokesman on July 19 declared the Israeli commercial hub “an unsafe area”, saying it “will be a primary target within the range of our weapons”.

Mr Saree said the Houthis “have a bank of targets” in Israel, including “sensitive military and security targets”.

They “will continue... to strike those targets in response to the enemy’s massacres and daily crimes against our people in the Gaza Strip”, he said. AFP