Yemen’s Houthi rebel group claimed responsibility Tuesday for an attack on a Norwegian-flagged oil tanker off Yemen that it says was sailing toward Israel.
“The naval forces of the Yemeni armed forces carried out a qualitative military operation against the Norwegian ship STRINDA which was loaded with fuel and headed towards the Israeli entity,” said Yahja Saree, a spokesman for the Houthi group.
He added that the operation was carried out by an “appropriate naval cruise missile” in the Red Sea, adding that the ship refused to heed the warnings.
A spokesman for the Yemeni group also said that in the past two days, several ships had responded to Houthi warnings, unlike the Norwegian ship.
The operation, he said, was carried out in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza, who are under relentless and deadly Israeli attacks.
He stressed that the Houthi group will continue to target all ships sailing in the Red and Arabian seas and heading towards Israel, unless food and medicine are allowed to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The US military said early Tuesday that an anti-ship cruise missile was fired from Yemen at a commercial tanker, causing a fire and damage to the ship, but no casualties were reported.
