Houthis vow to extend attacks deeper into the Indian Ocean

Another ship has been damaged by the Houthis, who now claim to have hypersonic missiles in their armoury and will expand their target zone deeper into the Indian Ocean to try and prevent enemy vessels from passing via the Cape of Good Hope. 

To date, in their five-month campaign in solidarity with Hamas, the Houthis from Yemen have focused their attacks on more than 65 ships to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with some two-thirds of all marine traffic between Asia and Europe now avoiding the area and heading around the continent of Africa instead. 

The leader of Yemen’s Houthis, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, said in a televised address yesterday the group’s operations targeting vessels will escalate to prevent Israel-linked ships from passing through the Indian Ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope.

“Our main battle is to prevent ships linked to the Israeli enemy from passing through not only the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, but also the Indian Ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope. This is a major step and we have begun to implement our operations related to it,” al-Houthi said with multiple reports also claiming the Iranian-backed group was now in possession of hypersonic missiles. 

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said a ship reported being “struck by a missile” at around 3am today.

“The vessel has sustained some damage,” the UKMTO added. It described the crew as being “safe” and said the ship was continuing on its way, suggesting the damage wasn’t severe. The incident took place 76 miles west of Hodeidah, Yemen.