Iran-backed Houthi rebels fire MISSILES at US destroyer off Yemen in ‘significant escalation’ after American troops freed Israeli-linked tanker from pirates

Iran-backed Houthi rebels have fired missiles at a US Navy destroyer off the coast of Yemen in a ‘significant escalation’ with American forces in the Middle East.

The USS Mason had responded to a distress call on Sunday from an Israeli-linked chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden that had been seized by armed rebels.

The Central Park tanker was carrying a cargo of phosphoric acid when its crew called for help, saying ‘they were under attack from an unknown entity’.

Allied ships from a counter-piracy task force that operates in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia, including the USS Mason, responded to the call for help and ‘demanded the release of the vessel’ upon reaching the tanker.

‘Subsequently, five armed individuals debarked the ship and attempted to flee via their small boat,’ the US Central Command said in a statement, adding: ‘The Mason pursued the attackers resulting in their eventual surrender.’

Hours later, at 1.41am local time, two ballistic missiles were fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen then landed near the US warship – a guided-missile destroyer, raising the stakes amid a series of ship attacks linked to the Israel-Hamas war.

Both missiles fell short by 10 nautical miles and landed in the water. 

Nevertheless, this has been viewed as a significant escalation, sources told Fox, as it shows Houthi rebels going as far as threatening US Navy vessels.

The rebels, from Yemen’s Houthis, were officially recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States under the Trump administration – until Biden removed the militants from the list in 2021.

Aid groups had said at the time of Trump’s move that it could further devastate the country, which was plunged into civil war in 2014.

Backed by Iran, the group expressed support for Hamas in the wake of the terror group’s October 7 attack on Israel and has launched other attacks since, including launching missiles towards Israel and against other vessels in the region.

The tanker hijacked on Sunday was identified as the Liberian-flagged Central Park by the vessel’s company Zodiac Maritime after its seizure.

Yemen’s internationally recognized government blamed the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels for the attack, though the rebels in control of the capital, Sanaa, did not acknowledge either the seizure or the missile attack. 

The Central Command did not identify the attackers, but said a missile launch from Houthi-controlled Yemen followed early Monday morning.

‘The missiles landed in the Gulf of Aden approximately 10 nautical miles (18.5 kilometers) from the ships,’ the statement said. ‘The USS Mason – was concluding its response to the M/V Central Park distress call at the time of the missile launches. There was no damage or reported injuries from either vessel during this incident.’

Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, USCENTCOM commander said: ‘Maritime domain security is essential to regional stability. We will continue to work with allies and partners to ensure the safety and security of international shipping lanes.’ 

Early Monday morning, Zodiac said the vessel had been carrying phosphoric acid and a crew of 22 sailors from Bulgaria, Georgia, India, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey and Vietnam. They were unharmed, it said.

‘We would like to thank the coalition forces who responded quickly, protecting assets in the area and upholding international maritime law,’ the company said.

Zodiac described the vessel as being owned by Clumvez Shipping Inc., though other records directly linked Zodiac as the owner. 

London-based Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group. 

British corporate records listed two men with the last name Ofer as a current and former director of Clumvez Shipping, including Daniel Guy Ofer, who is also a director at Zodiac Maritime.

Yemen’s internationally recognized government, which is based out of nearby Aden, blamed the rebels for the seizure in a statement to their state-run news agency.

‘The Yemeni government has renewed its denunciation of the acts of maritime piracy carried out by the terrorist Houthi militias with the support of the Iranian regime, the most recent of which was the hijacking of the Central Park,’ the statement read.

The attack happened in a part of the Gulf of Aden that is in theory under the control of that government’s forces and is fairly distant from Houthi-controlled territory in the country. Somali pirates are not known to operate in that area.

Zodiac Maritime has been targeted previously amid a wider yearslong shadow war between Iran and Israel. In 2021, a drone attack assessed by the US and other Western nations to have been carried out by Iran killed two crew members aboard Zodiac’s oil tanker Mercer Street off the coast of Oman.

The British military’s UK Maritime Trade Operations, which provides warnings to sailors in the Middle East, had issued a warning to sailors that ‘two black-and-white craft carrying eight persons in military-style clothing’ had been seen in the area.

The UKMTO put the Central Park’s location over 35 miles south of Yemen’s coast, some 50 miles east of Djibouti and around 70 miles northeast of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden, a key shipping route.

The Central Park seizure comes after a container ship, CMA CGM Symi, owned by another Israeli billionaire, came under attack on Friday by a suspected Iranian drone in the Indian Ocean. 

Iran has not acknowledged carrying out the attack, nor did it respond to questions from The Associated Press about that assault.

Both the Symi and the Central Park had been behaving as if they faced a threat in recent days. The ships had switched off their Automatic Identification System trackers, according to data from MarineTraffic.com analyzed by the AP. 

Ships are supposed to keep their AIS active for safety reasons, but crews will turn them off if it appears they might be targeted. 

In the Central Park’s case, the vessel had last transmitted four days ago after it left the Suez Canal heading south into the Red Sea.

Global shipping has increasingly been targeted as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to become a wider regional conflict – even as a truce has halted fighting and Hamas exchanges hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.  

The incident is the latest in a series of attacks in Middle Eastern waters since a brutal war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7 – even as a truce has halted fighting and Hamas exchanges hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

It followed a seizure of an Israeli-linked cargo ship by the Houthis in the southern Red Sea last week. The group, which has also fired ballistic missiles and armed drones at Israel, vowed to target more Israeli vessels.

The Galaxy Leader, a commercial ship, was allegedly illegally boarded by military personnel via a helicopter on November 19. 

The vessel was then spotted in the Hodeidah port area in Yemen, the images show.

The Houthis released dramatic footage showing heavily armed men dropping from a helicopter and seizing the cargo ship in the southern Red Sea.

In the clip, Gunmen approached the bridge with their weapons drawn as crew members held up their hands in surrender. One of the fighters was filmed walking through the ship while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’. 

The cargo ship was intercepted as it travelled past the Arabian peninsula en-route to India after leaving Turkey. It now appears to have come to a stop off the coast of Yemen, which is around 1,000 miles south of Israel.

It is registered under a British company which is partially owned by Israeli tycoon Abraham Ungar and is currently leased out to a Japanese company.

There is concern for the Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader’s crew, which Galaxy Maritime said is made up of nationals from Bulgaria, Ukraine, the Philippines, Mexico and Romania. The vessel is chartered by Japan’s Nippon Yusen. 

Galaxy Maritime said: ‘Owners and managers believe the seizure of this vessel represents a gross violation of freedom of passage for the world fleet and a serious threat to international trade.

It added that the ‘key concern at this time is the safety and security of the 25 crew members currently being held by the perpetrators of this criminal act’.

The Houthis had not directly targeted the Americans for some time, further raising the stakes in the growing maritime conflict.

In 2016, the US launched Tomahawk cruise missiles that destroyed three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled territory to retaliate for missiles being fired at US Navy ships, including the USS Mason, at the time.

Meanwhile on Sunday, the American aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower traveled through the Strait of Hormuz and entered the Persian Gulf, the US military said. 

The Eisenhower was accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea, the guided-missile destroyers USS Gravely and the USS Stethem and the French frigate Languedoc.