By Aziz Ahmadi
SANAA, Yemen (AA) – Yemen’s Houthi group said late Wednesday that it employed “new weapons” to target and sink the cargo ship MV Tutor in the Red Sea.
The announcement was made by the group's naval forces and published by the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV channel.
The statement said that “several naval weapons were used to target and sink the Tutor, including some that were used for the first time,” without elaborating.
On Tuesday, the British Navy announced in a statement that the MV Tutor had sunk in the Red Sea following a drone attack by the Houthis on June 12.
The Houthi statement said “the targeting of the ship occurred after the vessel, belonging to a Greek-owned company, violated the group's ban on entering the occupied Haifa port.”
The statement also accused the ship of “turning off its Automatic Identification System while passing through the Red Sea.”
While urging all maritime companies to take its warnings seriously, the group emphasized that these companies “are fully responsible for the safety of their ships and crews.”
The Houthis have been targeting ships that are Israeli-owned, flagged, operated or heading to Israeli ports in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with missiles and drones in solidarity with the Gaza Strip, which has been under a devastating Israeli offensive since Oct. 7.
As US and UK airstrikes continued against Houthi sites in Yemen, the Houthis declared that all American and British ships are military targets.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio