ISTANBUL

Yemen’s Houthi group announced Monday that it attacked three ships in the Red and Mediterranean Seas for breaching its embargo on vessels entering Israeli ports.

In a statement, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group's fighters targeted the “BENTLEY I” ship in the Red Sea with several ballistic missiles, bomb-laden drones and unmanned boats.

In the second operation, Saree said the group targeted the oil tanker "CHIOS Lion" in the Red Sea using a bomb-laden boat.

The military spokesman noted that the third operation was carried out in cooperation with the Iraqi Islamic Resistance group in the Mediterranean Sea and targeted the ship "Olvia," claiming to achieve an “accurate and direct hit.”

The Houthis have been targeting ships that are Israeli-owned, flagged, operated or headed to Israeli ports in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with missiles and drones in solidarity with Gaza, which has been under a devastating Israeli onslaught since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7 last year.

With the US and UK launching retaliatory airstrikes against Houthi sites inside Yemen, the Houthis declared that they consider all American and British ships military targets.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar