Above photo: U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa via AP.
Ten members of Yemen’s Ansarallah-led armed forces were killed when US Navy helicopter opened fire on boats attacking the Israeli-linked Maersk Hangzhou shipping vessel.
US Navy helicopters sank three Yemeni naval boats in the Red Sea, killing ten, a statement from the Ansarallah-led Yemeni Armed Forces said on 31 December.
According to the statement, the Yemeni navy fighters were killed “performing their humanitarian and moral duty” to prevent Israeli-linked ships or those heading to Israeli ports from passing through the Red Sea, “in solidarity and support for the Palestinian people.”
Since the beginning of the war on Gaza on 7 October, Yemeni armed forces have attacked over 15 commercial ships either headed to Israeli ports or whose owners have links to Israel, in an effort to stop Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign on Gaza, which many view as genocide.
The statement continued, saying “The Yemeni armed forces, while bleeding in the midst of the battle to support the Al-Aqsa Flood, accept these martyrs for the sake of Palestine and confirm that the American enemy bears the consequences of this crime and its repercussions.”
The statement added that Yemeni naval forces “succeeded in carrying out a military operation targeting the Maersk Hangzhou container ship, which was heading to the ports of occupied Palestine, with appropriate naval missiles.”
The operation came after the ship’s crew refused to respond to warning calls from the Yemeni naval forces.
Regarding the incident, US Central Command said the crew of the USS Gravely destroyer first shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles fired at the Singapore-flagged Maersk Hangzhou on Saturday. US forces shot down the missiles after the vessel reported getting hit by a missile earlier that evening as it sailed through the southern Red Sea.
Four small boats then attacked the same cargo ship with small arms fire early Sunday while commandos tried to board the vessel, the US Navy said.
Next, the USS Gravely and helicopters from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier responded to the Maersk Hangzhou’s distress call and issued verbal warnings to the attackers, who responded by firing on the helicopters.
US Navy helicopters then opened fire, sinking three of the four boats and killing the people on board while the fourth boat fled the area, the US Central Command said.
The US escalation comes as the UK military prepares to launch a wave of air strikes against Yemen.
The Times of London reported on 31 December that “Under the plans the UK would join with the US and possibly another European country to unleash a salvo of missiles against pre-planned targets, either in the sea or in Yemen itself,” where the Ansarallah-led Yemeni armed forces are based.”
The Times reported that according to government sources, the “co-ordinated strikes could involve RAF warplanes for the first time or HMS Diamond, a Type 45 destroyer which successfully destroyed an attack drone with a Sea Viper missile in the Red Sea earlier this month.”