The Danish-owned Maersk Hangzhou was in the southern part of the Red Sea, southwest of the port city of al-Hudaydah in Yemen, when the ship was attacked by a robot on Saturday night.
The US Navy, which monitors the area after previous attacks, moved out. The destroyer USS Gravely shot down two robots fired by the Houthi movement, which controls parts of Yemen. This is stated by the US Central Command Centcom.
Ten dead
On Sunday, the Islamist extremist movement tried to board the same ship and the crew raised the alarm again. Shots were fired between the ship’s security personnel and the Huthi militant group, which was around 20 meters from the Maersk Hangzhou.
A US military helicopter sank three of the small boats that attacked the Danish vessel. A fourth boat managed to escape from there, according to the US military command. Ten representatives of the Huthi movement are said to have died in the American attack, two sources at the port of al-Hudaya in Yemen state.
No one on board the Danish vessel was injured.
“Unacceptable”
The Houthi movement has carried out a series of attacks targeting merchant shipping in the Red Sea since November. The motive is said to be a reaction to Israel’s offensive in Gaza after terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel. The Houthi movement says it wants to attack ships that have links to Israel or are on their way to Israeli ports.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen calls the Huthi movement’s attack unacceptable. The government wants to send a Danish frigate to the Red Sea to participate in a US-led effort to protect international maritime traffic, which was created barely two weeks ago.