DUBAI, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Saturday that they had fired missiles at oil tanker Pollux, which U.S. officials said the previous day had been hit by a missile.
[aesop_image img=”https://kayhanlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024-02-17T080652Z_1_LOP126217022024RP1_RTRMADP_BASEIMAGE-960X540_ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-SHIPPING-YEMEN-HOUTHIS.jpg” panorama=”off” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” caption=”Houthi Military Spokesperson Yahya Sarea Delivering Statement. REUTERS./” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]
The U.S. State Department said on Friday that the Pollux, a Panamanian-flagged tanker carrying crude oil bound for India, was hit by a missile on its port side.
“The naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a targeting operation against a British oil ship (Pollux) in the Red Sea with a large number of appropriate naval missiles, and the strikes were accurate and direct”, the Houthis’ military spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, said in a statement.
The Houthis have launched repeated drone and missile attacks against international commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait since mid-November, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians as Israel wages war on Hamas.
(Reporting by Ahmed Elimam and Adam Makary, Editing by Stephen Coates and Frances Kerry)
