US raids hit hijacked Israel-linked ship in Yemen
We’ve been reporting on the US’s latest raids on the Red Sea port of Hodeidah. The official Saba news agency is now reporting that the raids hit “the command post of the detained Israeli ship Galaxy Leader”.
Saba, citing a military official, said the US targeted the ship with two air strikes.
Houthi fighters hijacked the Galaxy Leader in November 2023, detaining its 25-member crew, who hail from the Philippines, Mexico, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine, for 430 days. They were released in January after the ceasefire in Gaza came into effect.
The ship, meanwhile, has remained in the Hodeidah port. It is owned by a British company that is partially owned by Israeli tycoon Abraham Ungar, according to The Times of Israel.
People ride a boat near the Galaxy Leader commercial ship, seized by Yemen’s Houthis in November 2023, off the coast of as-Salif, Yemen on December 5, 2023
Houthis claim second attack on US warship
The rebel group says it attacked the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier for the second time in the past 24 hours, launching “a number of drones and ballistic and cruise missiles” at the warship.
The assault “lasted for several hours” and “succeeded in thwarting a hostile attack the enemy was preparing to launch against our country”, the group said.
There was no immediate comment from the US.
As we’ve been reporting, the Houthis claimed another missile and drone attack on the USS Harry Truman earlier on Sunday.
The US dismissed the claim, with an official telling Reuters that US forces shot down 11 Houthi drones, none of which came close to the aircraft carrier, and also tracked a missile that splashed down off the coast of Yemen.
US attacks hit cancer facility, cotton shop in Yemen
We have more on the destruction from US’s attacks on Sunday.
The official Saba news agency, citing local authorities, is reporting that US forces carried out a number of air strikes on a cancer facility that is being built in the city of Saada on Sunday, causing “widespread destruction”.
Mohammed Awad, the governor of Saada, told a meeting of local officials that several residential neighbourhoods were also hit.
“He pointed out that the US enemy’s targeting of residential neighborhoods and civilian facilities, including the cancer tumor building, confirms the state of failure, enemy confusion [and] reveals America’s ugly and criminal face,” Saba reported.
The Ministry of Agriculture also condemned the targeting of a cotton shop in the Zabid district of Hodeidah govenrorate, according to Saba.
The ministry said the targeting of civilian infrastructure is aimed at doubling the human suffering in Yemen.
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