By Ahmed Tolba and Lisa Baertlein
CAIRO/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Yemen’s Houthis said on Saturday their missiles hit the Andromeda Star oil tanker in the Red Sea, as they continue attacking commercial ships in the area in a show of support for Palestinians fighting Israel in the Gaza war.
U.S. Central Command confirmed that Iran-backed Houthis launched three anti-ship ballistic missiles into the Red Sea from Yemen causing minor damage to the Andromeda Star.
The ship’s master reported damage to the vessel, British maritime security firm Ambrey said.
A missile landed in the vicinity of a second vessel, the MV Maisha, but it was not damaged, U.S. Central Command said on social media site X.
Houthi spokesman Yahya Sarea said the Panama-flagged Andromeda Star was British owned, but shipping data shows it was recently sold, according to LSEG data and Ambrey.
Its current owner is Seychelles-registered. The tanker is engaged in Russia-linked trade. It was en route from Primorsk, Russia, to Vadinar, India, Ambrey said.
Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched repeated drone and missile strikes in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden since November, forcing shippers to re-route cargo to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa and stoking fears the Israel-Hamas war could spread and destabilise the Middle East.
The attack on the Andromeda Star comes after a brief pause in the Houthis’ campaign that targets ships with ties to Israel, the United States and Britain.
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier sailed out of the Red Sea via the Suez Canal on Friday after assisting a U.S.-led coalition to protect commercial shipping.
The Houthis on Friday said they downed an American MQ-9 drone in airspace of Yemen’s Saada province.
(Reporting by Ahmed Tolba in Cairo and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie Adler, Chris Reese and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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