...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
i rebels; ballistic missile slams into container ship
One of the world’s largest shipping companies, Maersk, said Friday it was suspending its vessels’ passage through a key Red Sea strait following attacks by Yemeni Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the
Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is
God is Great, Death to Americaâ„¢, Death to Israel, a curse on the JewsThey like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
rebels on merchant ships.
"Following the near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar yesterday and yet another attack on a container vessel today, we have instructed all Maersk vessels in the area bound to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to pause their journey until further notice," the Danish company said a statement to AFP.
German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd announced it too was suspending Red Sea container ship traffic until December 18, after one of its vessels was attacked by the Houthis.
"Hapag-Lloyd is interrupting all container ship traffic across the Red Sea until Monday," the company said in a statement sent to AFP.
At that point, they would make a decision on the subsequent period, it added.
The statements came after a ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels slammed into a fat merchantman Friday in the Red Sea near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, following another attack only hours earlier that struck a separate vessel, authorities said.
The missile attack on the MSC Palatium III and the earlier assault on the Al Jasrah escalated a maritime campaign by the Iranian-backed Houthis.
The attacks also endanger ships traveling through a vital corridor for cargo and energy shipments for both Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
and Asia from the Suez Canal out to the Indian Ocean.
The Houthis say their attacks aim to end Israel’s war with the Hamas
...a regional Iranian catspaw,...terror group. However,
the hip bone's connected to the leg bone...
the links to the ships targeted in the rebel assaults have grown more tenuous as the attacks continue.
"The Yemeni armed forces confirm they will continue to prevent all ships heading to Israeli ports from navigating in the (Red Sea) until they bring in the food and medicine that our steadfast brothers in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
Strip need," the Houthi military front man, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, said in a statement claiming responsibility for Friday’s attacks.
War erupted in Gaza after Hamas’s October 7 massacre. In response, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas and launched a wide-scale offensive aimed at rooting out the terror organization’s military and governance capabilities. The offensive has drawn international reproach for its mounting corpse count, with the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza reporting over 18,000 Paleostinians dead. However,
the hip bone's connected to the leg bone...
the number cannot be independently verified and is believed to include some 7,000 Hamas and Hamas-affiliated terror operatives as well as civilians killed by misfired Paleostinian rockets.
Meanwhile,
...back at the Senate, the partisans of Honorius went for their knives and the partisans of Stilicho went for the doors...
hijackers, likely from Somalia, separately seized a Bulgarian ship in the Arabian Sea.
A US defense official and the private intelligence firm Ambrey said the MSC Palatium III, a Liberian-flagged container ship, caught fire after the strike. It was not immediately clear if anyone on board the vessel had been hurt.
Two missiles were fired in the attack, likely trying to hit the Al Jasrah, the US official said. One went wide and splashed down in the water, the other slammed into the Palatium, the official said. The Palatium turned around after the attack and was now trying to head south, tracking data analyzed by The News Agency that Dare Not be Named showed.
The Switzerland
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
-based MSC, or Mediterranean Shipping Co., earlier had another vessel, the MSC Alanya, warned by the Houthis around the Bab el-Mandeb, Ambrey said. "The parent company had cooperated with Israel, and this was likely the reason why she was threatened."
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. MSC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the earlier Al Jasrah attack, it remained unclear if it was a missile or drone that hit the vessel, the official said. Ambrey and the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which monitors Mideast shipping lanes, also confirmed that attack.
"The projectile reportedly hit the port side of the vessel and one container fell overboard due to the impact," Ambrey said. "The projectile caused a ’fire on deck’ which was broadcast via" radio.
Shipper Hapag-Lloyd said no crew member had been hurt in the attack. It later announced that it was also pausing its ships through the Red Sea until Monday and "will decide for the period thereafter."
Ambrey noted that Hapag-Lloyd "is known to have offices in the Israeli ports of Ashdod, Haifa and Tel Aviv."
In his statement, military front man Saree claimed the Houthis targeted the Palatium III and the Alanya — not the Al Jasrah. It was not immediately clear why he erroneously identified the second ship.
The attacks Friday further escalate a campaign by the Houthi rebels, who have grabbed credit for a series of missile assaults in recent days that just missed shipping in the Red Sea and its strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
On Thursday, the Houthis fired a ballistic missile that missed a container ship traveling through the strait.
The day before that, two missiles fired from Houthi-held territory missed a commercial tanker loaded with Indian-manufactured jet fuel near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Also near the strait, a missile fired by Houthis on Monday night slammed into a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea.
Global shipping has increasingly been targeted as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to become a wider regional conflict — even during a brief pause in fighting at the end of November during which Hamas exchanged 105 hostages for 240 Paleostinian prisoners held by Israel. The collapse of the truce at the beginning of December has raised the risk of more sea attacks.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is only 29 kilometers (18 miles) wide at its narrowest point, limiting traffic to two channels for inbound and outbound shipments, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Nearly 10% of all oil traded at sea passes through it. An estimated $1 trillion in goods pass through the strait annually.
Related:
Maersk: 2023-12-15 Missile fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen misses a container ship in Bab el-Mandeb Strait
Maersk: 2023-11-05 Maersk cuts 10,000 jobs as shipping demand falls
Maersk: 2023-11-04 Looks like a soft peak for ocean shipping this holiday season - which implies buyers anticipate poor holiday sales
Maersk: 2023-12-15 Missile fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen misses a container ship in Bab el-Mandeb Strait
Maersk: 2023-11-05 Maersk cuts 10,000 jobs as shipping demand falls
Maersk: 2023-11-04 Looks like a soft peak for ocean shipping this holiday season - which implies buyers anticipate poor holiday sales
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