Rocket fire reported off Yemen in Red Sea in a new suspected attack by Houthi rebels

This is a locator map for Yemen with its capital, Sanaa. Photo / AP

A rocket exploded late Tuesday night off the side of a ship travelling through the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, authorities said, the latest suspected attack to be carried out by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The attack comes as the Houthis continue a series of assaults at sea over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and as the US and its allies launch airstrikes trying to stop them.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre, which oversees shipping in the Mideast, reported the attack happened about 110km off the coast of the Houthi-held port city of Hodeida. The rocket exploded several miles off the bow of the vessel, it said.

“The crew and vessel are reported to be safe and are proceeding to next port of call,” the UKMTO said.

The private security firm Ambrey reported that the vessel targeted appeared to be a Marshall Islands-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier in the area at the time. Another ship, a Panama-flagged, Emirati-owned chemical tanker was nearby as well, Ambrey said.

The Associated Press could not immediately identify the vessels involved.

The Houthis typically take several hours to claim their assaults and have not yet done so for the assault late Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the US military’s Central Command said an American and an allied warship shot down five Houthi bomb-carrying drones in the Red Sea on Tuesday night.

The drones originated “from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and [it was] determined they presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and to the US Navy and coalition ships in the region,” Central Command said in a statement.

Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters over the Israel-Hamas war. Those vessels have included at least one with cargo for Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor, and an aid ship later bound for Houthi-controlled territory.

Despite over a month of US-led airstrikes, Houthi rebels remain capable of launching significant attacks. Last week, they severely damaged a ship in a crucial strait and downed an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars. The Houthis insist their attacks will continue until Israel stops its combat operations in the Gaza Strip, which have enraged the wider Arab world and seen the Houthis gain international recognition.

On Saturday, Central Command said a Houthi attack on a Belize-flagged ship on February 18 caused a 29km oil slick and warned of the danger of a spill from the vessel’s cargo of fertiliser. The Rubymar, a British-registered, Lebanese-operated cargo vessel, was attacked while sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The Houthis, a Zaydi Shiite group, seized Yemen’s capital in 2014 and have battled a Saudi-led coalition since 2015. Their Zaydi people ran a 1000-year kingdom in Yemen up until 1962.