While the Houthi group announced, on Sunday, that it had targeted an American oil ship and warships with drones and anti-ship ballistic missiles, Washington sent a warning message to the Yemeni group.

According to its military spokesman, Yahya Saree, the Houthi group said in a statement that it targeted the MV Torm Thor oil tanker, which flies the American flag and is owned and operated by the United States, with a number of “appropriate” naval missiles in the Gulf of Aden.

Saree indicated that the Houthi group targeted a number of American warships in the Red Sea with a number of drones.

The British Trade Association said that it had received “a report of an accident 70 nautical miles east of the port of Djibouti in the Red Sea,” noting that the authorities were investigating the incident.

A quick announcement came a few hours after the start of a violent round of US-British strikes against Houthi targets in Sanaa and Taiz, and following continuous strikes targeting Houthi positions in Hodeidah Governorate.

American warning message

Following the joint US-British strikes that targeted 18 Houthi targets, the United States sent a warning message to the Yemeni group allied with Iran.

The message came from US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who said that the Houthis will continue to face responses to their attacks against ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters.

Austin said in a statement, “The United States will not hesitate to take action, as needed, to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most important waterways.”

He added: “We will continue to make clear to the Houthis that they will bear the consequences if they do not stop their illegal attacks that are harming the economies of the Middle East, causing environmental damage, and disrupting the delivery of humanitarian aid to Yemen and other countries.”

For 3 months, the Houthis have been carrying out attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea that they say are linked to Israel or heading to its ports.

In an attempt to deter the Houthis and protect navigation in the strategic region through which 12% of global trade passes, American and British forces launched a series of strikes on their military sites in Yemen since last January.

Following the Western strikes, the Houthis began targeting American and British ships in the region, considering that the interests of both countries had become “legitimate targets.”