2 ships damaged by Houthi drone and missile attacks in Red Sea

 Two commercial ships were damaged during attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea on Tuesday. (File/AFP)
Two commercial ships were damaged during attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea on Tuesday. (File/AFP)
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Updated 01 October 2024
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2 ships damaged by Houthi drone and missile attacks in Red Sea

 Two commercial ships were damaged during attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea on Tuesday. (File/AFP)
  • Attacks mark end of a lull lasting nearly a month in the militia’s attacks on international shipping in Red Sea and other waters off Yemen

AL-MUKALLA: Two commercial ships were damaged during attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea on Tuesday. The Yemeni militia said it also targeted military sites in Israel with five drones in support of Palestine and Lebanon.

UK Maritime Trade Operations, an agency that monitors incidents at sea, said it received an alert on Tuesday morning from a ship 64 miles northwest of the west-coast Yemeni city of Hodeidah saying a drone hit the vessel, puncturing a port ballast tank. The ship’s master said he also observed four splashes close to the vessel, the crew is safe and the vessel is heading to its next port of call.

Also on Tuesday morning, the agency said the master of another ship, located 97 nautical miles northwest of Hodeidah, reported a missile strike that caused damage but the crew was safe.

The ship in the first incident was identified as the Panamanian-flagged crude oil tanker Cordelia Moon, which was traveling from India to an unknown location. The Houthis claim to be targeting international shipping with links to Israel, the US or the UK in support of the Palestinian people, but details of the vessel on ship-tracking websites such as www.marinetraffic.com showed no obvious connection with those countries.

Information on TankerTrackers.com, an oil shipment tracking service, indicated the ship did not have any oil on board when attacked. In a message posted on social media network X, the website wrote: “Cordelia Moon is currently empty after delivering a million barrels of Russian crude oil to India. The fact that she’s empty makes her MORE explosive (remember Pablo?) as well as a more attainable target due to her increased height above sea level.”

The Pablo was an empty oil tanker that exploded in the Malaysian waters shortly after making a delivery last year.

The Joint Maritime Information Center confirmed the Cordelia Moon had been attacked by missiles and a drone and sustained damage but did not require assistance.

“JMIC assesses that (the ship) was likely targeted due to affiliations within the vessel’s operational structure,” the organization said.

The other targeted ship was a Liberian-flagged bulk carrier heading from Oman toward the Suez Canal.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a televised statement on Tuesday that the militia attacked the “British” oil tanker Cordelia Moon with eight ballistic missiles, an unmanned aerial vehicle and a drone boat. He said the militia also attacked a ship called Marathopolis twice in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea with a missile and a drone for violating a Houthi ban on sailing to Israel.

The Houthis also said on Tuesday that they targeted a military site in the Israeli capital, Tel Aviv, with a drone and launched four drones at similar targets in the Red Sea city of Eilat.

Sarea said the attacks against Israel were “in triumph for the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples, and in support of the valiant Palestinian and Lebanese resistance.”

The attacks at sea on Tuesday marked the end of a lull lasting nearly a month in the militia’s attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and other waters off the coast of Yemen.

Since November, the Houthis have seized one commercial ship and kidnapped its crew, sunk two others, and launched hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones and drone boats at commercial and naval vessels in international shipping lanes.

They say the aim of their terror campaign is to put pressure on Israel to end its war in Gaza, and that they only attack ships linked to Israel, bound for the country, or with parent companies that do business with Israeli ports.

Meanwhile, the Yemeni Journalists’ Syndicate said on Tuesday that Abdo Mused Al-Mudan, a journalist held by the Houthis, has been moved to the intensive care unit at a hospital in Sanaa after his health deteriorated at a militia detention facility.

Al-Mudan was one of more than 400 people abducted from their homes or the streets by the Houthis last week for commemorating the anniversary of the Sept. 26, 1962, revolution or encouraging others to do so.

The syndicate said his health deteriorated as a result of mistreatment by his captors and poor conditions at the detention facility, raising concerns about the health of other journalists and activists held by the Houthis.

“The syndicate renews its demand for the immediate release of all journalists detained by the Houthi group, as well as all prisoners of conscience arrested since the beginning of last September,” the organization said.

Despite growing condemnation of their crackdown on those who celebrated the anniversary of the revolution, the Houthis refuse to release the detainees, accusing them of being US stooges who are undermining security in areas under the militia’s control in an attempt to put pressure on them to halt the attacks on international shipping.


Red Cross says strike injured paramedics on rescue mission in south Lebanon

Red Cross says strike injured paramedics on rescue mission in south Lebanon
Updated 5 sec ago
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Red Cross says strike injured paramedics on rescue mission in south Lebanon

Red Cross says strike injured paramedics on rescue mission in south Lebanon
BEIRUT: The Lebanese Red Cross said its paramedics were hit by a strike on Sunday while attending the site of an earlier attack in the south, leaving them lightly injured.
“Following the air strike on a house in Sirbin... Lebanese Red Cross ambulance teams were dispatched to the scene in coordination with” UN peacekeepers, the Red Cross said in a statement.
“As the team was searching for casualties to rescue, the house was hit for a second time resulting in concussions to the volunteers and damage to the two ambulances,” it said, adding the paramedics had sustained light injuries.
Jagan Chapagain, who heads the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) called for rescuers to be protected.
“We have said it before and today we say it again: the Red Cross emblem must be respected under International Humanitarian Law,” he said in a statement shared on X.
Nearly a year of cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza war escalated into all-out conflict on September 23.
Since then, dozens of rescuers have been killed in Israeli strikes across Lebanon, officials have said.

Netanyahu tells UN chief to move peacekeepers in Lebanon out of ‘harm’s way immediately’

Netanyahu tells UN chief to move peacekeepers in Lebanon out of ‘harm’s way immediately’
Updated 55 min 3 sec ago
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Netanyahu tells UN chief to move peacekeepers in Lebanon out of ‘harm’s way immediately’

Netanyahu tells UN chief to move peacekeepers in Lebanon out of ‘harm’s way immediately’
  • Netanyahu’s appeal to UN chief Antonio Guterres comes a day after UNIFIL refused to withdraw

BEIRUT: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on the UN chief to move UN peacekeepers deployed in southern Lebanon out of “harm’s way.”
Netanyahu’s appeal to UN chief Antonio Guterres comes a day after the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, refused to withdraw from the border area despite five of its members being wounded in Israeli fire in recent days.
“Mr Secretary General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm’s way. It should be done right now, immediately,” Netanyahu said in a video statement issued by his office, in what were his first comments on the issue.
Netanyahu, speaking at a cabinet meeting, said Israeli forces had asked UNIFIL several times to leave but it had “met with repeated refusals” that provided a “human shield to Hezbollah terrorists.”
“Your refusal to evacuate the UNIFIL soldiers makes them hostages of Hezbollah. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers,” Netanyahu said.
“We regret the injuring of UNIFIL soldiers and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injuring. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone.”
UNIFIL has refused to leave its positions in southern Lebanon.
“There was a unanimous decision to stay because it’s important for the UN flag to still fly high in this region, and to be able to report to the Security Council,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told AFP in an interview on Saturday.
Tenenti said Israel had asked UNIFIL to withdraw from positions “up to five kilometers (three miles) from the Blue Line” separating both countries, but the peacekeepers refused.
That would have included its 29 positions in Lebanon’s south.
UNIFIL, a mission of about 9,500 troops of various nationalities that was created in 1978, is tasked with monitoring a ceasefire that ended a 33-day war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.
Forty nations that contribute to the peacekeeping force in Lebanon said on Saturday that they “strongly condemn recent attacks” on the peacekeepers.
“Such actions must stop immediately and should be adequately investigated,” said the joint statement, posted on X by the Polish UN mission and signed by nations including leading contributors Indonesia, Italy and India.


Iran FM says ‘no red lines’ in defending itself

Iran FM says ‘no red lines’ in defending itself
Updated 13 October 2024
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Iran FM says ‘no red lines’ in defending itself

Iran FM says ‘no red lines’ in defending itself
  • Abbas Araghchi was in Baghdad to discuss the wars in Gaza and Lebanon with Iraqi officials
  • After Baghdad, Araghchi will head to Oman

BAGHDAD: Iran’s top diplomat vowed Sunday there would be “no red lines” for the country in defending its people and interests, ahead of Israel’s expected retaliation for Iran’s recent missile attack.
“While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in a post on X.
Iran fired 200 missiles at Israel on October 1 in what it said was retaliation for the killing of Tehran-aligned militant leaders in the region and a general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has vowed Israel’s response will be “deadly, precise, and surprising.”
Araghchi was in Baghdad to discuss the wars in Gaza and Lebanon with Iraqi officials, according to the ministry.
Ali Al-Moussawi, political adviser to the Iraqi prime minister, told AFP Araghchi’s visit was part of a diplomatic effort “to silence weapons and violence... to establish security and stability in the region.”
After Baghdad, Araghchi will head to Oman, the Iranian ISNA news agency reported.
On Thursday, Araghchi was in Qatar where he met Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani over the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Qatar has been mediating talks aimed at a Gaza ceasefire and has called for a truce in Lebanon.
A day earlier, Araghchi met Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan.
In a recent interview, Araghchi said Iran does “not want war” but it was “not afraid of it.”
“We will be ready for any scenario,” he told Al Jazeera news network.


Sudan rescuers say air strike killed 23 in Khartoum market

Sudan rescuers say air strike killed 23 in Khartoum market
Updated 13 October 2024
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Sudan rescuers say air strike killed 23 in Khartoum market

Sudan rescuers say air strike killed 23 in Khartoum market
  • The market is near one of the main camps in the Sudanese capital, where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been fighting the military as part of a civil war

POST SUDEN: A Sudanese network of volunteer rescuers said on Sunday the military carried out an air strike a day earlier on a marketplace in Khartoum, leaving 23 people dead.
The market is near one of the main camps in the Sudanese capital, where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been fighting the military as part of a civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people.
“Twenty-three people were confirmed dead and more than 40 others wounded” and taken to hospital after “military air strikes on Saturday afternoon on the main market” in southern Khartoum, the youth-led Emergency Response Rooms said in a post on Facebook.
Fierce fighting has raged since Friday around Khartoum, much of which is controlled by the RSF, with the military pounding the center and south of the city from the air.
The military is advancing toward Khartoum from nearby Omdurman, where clashes erupted on Saturday, eyewitnesses said.

Since April 2023, when war broke out between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the paramilitaries had largely pushed the army out of Khartoum.
The World Health Organization says at least 20,000 people have been killed in the civil war, but some estimates put the toll much higher at up to 150,000.
The war has also created the world’s largest displacement crisis, the UN says.
More than 10 million people, around a fifth of Sudan’s population, have been forced from their homes, according to UN figures.
A UN-backed assessment in August declared a famine in the Zamzam refugee camp in Darfur near the city of El-Fasher.
The government loyal to the army is based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, where the army has retained control.
The RSF meanwhile has taken control of nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur, rampaged through the agricultural heartland of central Sudan and pushed into the army-controlled southeast.


Iran, Iraq funerals for general killed with Hezbollah chief

Iran, Iraq funerals for general killed with Hezbollah chief
Updated 13 October 2024
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Iran, Iraq funerals for general killed with Hezbollah chief

Iran, Iraq funerals for general killed with Hezbollah chief
  • Nilforoushan is a top commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force foreign operations arm was killed alongside Nasrallah

Tehran: Iran and Iraq will both stage funerals for Revolutionary Guard General Abbas Nilforoushan, killed in an Israeli air strike alongside Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, the Guards’ news agency said Sunday.
Nilforoushan, a top commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force foreign operations arm, was killed on September 27 alongside Nasrallah in the strike on south Beirut.
The IRGC said Friday his body had been recovered from the site of the strike on the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.
Funeral ceremonies will be held in “Najaf and Karbala” in Iraq on Monday before the body is transferred to Iran’s holy city of Mashhad, the Sepah news agency said.
Another ceremony will take place at Tehran’s Imam Hossein Square on Tuesday before burial Thursday in the central city of Isfahan, his hometown, Sepah said.
On October 1, Iran fired some 200 missiles at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Nasrallah, Nilforoushan and Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in late July.
Israel said it carried out the Beirut strike but did not comment on Haniyeh’s death in Tehran, where he had attended the inauguration of the Islamic republic’s new president.
Israel has vowed to retaliate for the Iranian missile attack, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant saying the response would be “deadly, precise, and surprising.”