The Iran-backed Houthi terror group said Monday that it had fired a missile at an Israeli-owned tanker in the Red Sea, days after the prime minister of Yemen’s rebel government and several other ministers were killed in an IDF strike on the capital Sanaa.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for the launch in a prerecorded message aired on al-Masirah, a Houthi-controlled satellite news channel. He alleged the vessel, the Liberian-flagged Scarlet Ray, had ties to Israel.
The ship’s owners, Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping, could not be immediately reached. However, the maritime security firm Ambrey described the ship as fitting the Houthis’ “target profile, as the vessel is publicly Israeli owned.”
Eastern Pacific is a company that is ultimately controlled by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer. Eastern Pacific previously has been targeted in suspected Iranian attacks.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, which monitors Mideast shipping, said the attack missed its target.
UKMTO said the ship’s crew “witnessed a splash in close proximity to their vessel from an unknown projectile and heard a loud bang. All crew are safe and the vessel continues on its voyage.”
The Houthis — whose slogan calls for “Death to America, Death to Israel, [and] a Curse on the Jews” — began attacking Israel and maritime traffic in November 2023, a month after the October 7 Hamas massacre in southern Israel.
From November 2023 to December 2024, the Houthis targeted more than 100 ships with missiles and drones over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. In their campaign so far, the Houthis have sank four vessels and killed at least eight mariners.
Houthis stopped their attacks during a brief ceasefire in the war. They later became the target of an intense weekslong campaign of airstrikes ordered by US President Donald Trump before he declared a ceasefire had been reached with the rebels. The Houthis sank two vessels in July, killing at least four on board with others believed to be held by the rebels.
Monday’s attempted missile attack came days after Israel’s strike on Thursday that killed the Houthis’ prime minister, Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser al-Rahawi, along with other officials.
Thousands of people attended a funeral for al-Rahawi and and the other ministers in Saana on Monday.
Mourners chanted the Houthi slogan “God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam”, as Mohammed Miftah, now de facto head of the Iran-aligned government in Sanaa, vowed revenge as well as an internal security crackdown against spies.
“We are facing the strongest intelligence empire in the world, the one that targeted the government – the whole Zionist entity (comprising) the US administration, the Zionist entity, the Zionist Arabs and the spies inside Yemen,” Miftah told the crowd of mourners at the Al Saleh mosque.
Miftah became the acting head of the Houthis’ government on Saturday following the death of al-Rahwi. Al-Rahwi was largely a figurehead and not part of the inner circle of power.
Miftah had previously been his deputy.
The fate of the Houthis’ powerful defense minister, Mohamed al-Atifi, who runs the Missiles Brigades Group, remains unclear as he has not made an appearance since the attack.
The Iran-backed terror group on Sunday vowed to intensify its attacks on Israel after the killing of Rahawi, the most senior Houthi official known to have died since the group began attacking Israel and maritime traffic in November 2023.