Commercial ship hit by armed attack off Yemeni coast

The UK Maritime Trade Operations announced the outbreak of a fire on board a commercial ship after "an attack targeting it, the third of its kind in the past few hours" off the coast of Al Hudaydah Governorate, western Yemen. It said in a post on its website on the "X" platform regarding an attack on a ship 77 nautical miles west of Al Hudaydah, Yemen, "The ship's captain reported another attack with an unknown projectile and there is a fire on board the ship and it has lost power." It explained in its post that "the ship is currently drifting and is not under control, and the captain reported the presence of a small boat still in the area." Earlier today, the British Authority announced that it had received a report from the captain of the same ship that it had been attacked with three shells after two small boats approached the ship and an exchange of fire between the two parties with light weapons took place. There was no immediate comment from the Yemeni Ansar Allah movement (Houthis), which has been launching naval attacks since last November that it says target ships linked to Israel, the United States and Britain in support of the Palestinian factions in confronting the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip. On October 10, Ansar Allah announced that it would support the Palestinian factions in confronting the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip with missile and air attacks and "other military options" if the United States intervenes militarily directly in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Strip. Source: National Iraqi News Agency