A U.S.-owned ship in the Gulf of Aden came under attack Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024, from a drone launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen, U.S. Central Command said. (Noga Ami-rav/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — A U.S.-owned ship in the Gulf of Aden came under attack Wednesday from a drone launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen, U.S. Central Command said.
The Genco Picardy was hit by a one-way attack drone at about 8:30 p.m. local time. There was damage to the ship but no injuries were reported, CENTCOM announced in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The strike on the Genco Picardy is the latest in the continuing attacks from the Houthis against commercial vessels and U.S. warships in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea.
The recent attacks follow a retaliatory strike against the rebels in Yemen launched Jan. 11 by U.S. and British forces, with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands.
The U.S.-led attack against the Houthis struck more than 60 targets at 28 sites in Yemen, including “command-and-control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities and air defense radar systems,” according to U.S. military officials.
The Houthis, an Iranian-backed militant group that has been fighting a civil war against the government in Yemen, responded Monday by hitting the U.S.-owned ship Gibraltar Eagle with an anti-ship ballistic missile. On Sunday, the rebels had also fired an anti-ship missile toward the USS Laboon, a destroyer operating in the southern Red Sea. There were no injuries or damage reported in either attack, according to CENTCOM.
U.S. forces on Tuesday destroyed four missiles prepared to launch from Yemen on the same day that the Houthis hit a Greek-owned vessel, though there were no injuries, CENTCOM reported.
The hostilities caused the State Department on Wednesday to announce the U.S. has redesignated the Houthis as a global terrorist group.
“These attacks against international shipping have endangered mariners, disrupted the free flow of commerce, and interfered with navigational rights and freedoms. This designation seeks to promote accountability for the group’s terrorist activities,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “If the Houthis cease their attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, the United States will reevaluate this designation.”
