Yemen’s Houthis say they attacked Maersk Sentosa ship in Arabian Sea

Audio By Carbonatix

DUBAI (Reuters) -Yemen’s Houthis said on Tuesday they targeted the Maersk Sentosa ship in the Arabian sea with several ballistic and wing missiles.

“The American ship Maersk Sentosa was targeted in the Arabian Sea by naval forces and missile force in a joint operation,” Yahya Sarea, the Yemeni group’s military spokesperson, said in a televised speech.

Earlier on Tuesday, shipping giant Maersk said one of its vessels, the Maersk Sentosa, reported being targeted by a flying object in the north of the Gulf of Aden.

Maersk told Reuters that no injuries to the crew or damage to the ship or cargo were reported.

A spokesperson for the Copenhagen-based company said the ship was one of its U.S.-flagged vessels sailing for the subsidiary Maersk Line, Limited.

The captain of an unnamed merchant ship reported an explosion close to the vessel some 180 nautical miles (333 km) east of Yemen’s Nishtun, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said in an advisory note on Tuesday.

UKMTO added that the vessel and its crew are safe.

Sarea also said the group targeted the Marathopolis ship in the Arabian Sea and the MSC Patnaree ship in the Gulf of Aden with a number of drones.

Houthi militants in Yemen have launched drone and missile attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden since November. They say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians over the war in Gaza.

(Reporting by Jana Choukeir, Tala Ramadan in Dubai, Louise Rasmussen in Copenhagen, Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm, additional reporting by Jaidaa Taha and Hatem Maher in Cairo; editing by Andrew Heavens, Ros Russell and Richard Chang)