Dubai, United Arab Emirates (AP) Yemen’s Houthi rebels The U.S. military said it likely fired an Iranian-made anti-ship cruise missile at a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea in December, saying the attack was the first publicly-evidenced link between ongoing rebel operations against shipping and Iran.
According to a Defense Intelligence Agency report released Wednesday, Attack on StrindaThe perpetrators of the ship’s blaze were sent to Iran, the main backer of the Houthis in Yemen’s nearly decade-long war.The findings are in line with those of a Norway-based insurance group that examined the wreckage found aboard the Strinda.
This comes as the Houthis continue their months-long campaign of attacks over Israel’s war with Hamas, targeting shipping in the Red Sea corridor and cutting off the flow of goods worth $1 trillion a year. The fiercest battle It’s a sight the U.S. Navy hasn’t seen since World War II.
Responding to questions from The Associated Press, Iran’s mission to the United Nations again denied supplying weapons to the Houthis, despite the reports.
“We are aware that (the Houthis) have significantly strengthened their military capabilities, relying on their own resources,” the mission said. “The protracted war with them is the main factor behind their expansion.”
The Strinda was on its way from Malaysia to the Suez Canal with a cargo of palm oil bound for Italy when it came under missile attack on December 11. The attack caused a large fire on board the ship, which the crew later extinguished and no one was injured.
Wreckage found on board was later analyzed by the U.S. military, and the Defense Intelligence Agency compared pieces of a missile engine found on board to an Iranian Noor anti-ship ballistic cruise missile.
“The Iranian Tor-4 turbojet engine used in the Noor (missile) has distinctive features, including a compressor stage and stator, that match engine remains recovered during the Houthi attack on the M/T Stranda,” the Defense Intelligence Agency report said. The stator is the fixed part of the engine.
According to the DIA, the debris matches images of a Tolu-4 engine that Iran displayed at the International Aviation and Space Show in Russia in 2017. The photos showed similarities in the engine’s appearance.
The Noor is an Iranian reverse-engineered version of the Chinese C-802 anti-ship missile, which Iran purchased from Beijing and began testing in 1996, but transfers were halted under U.S. pressure. The Iranian version has a maximum range of 170 kilometers (105 miles), while an improved version called the Qader has a maximum range of 300 kilometers (185 miles). The Houthis have a similar missile to the Qader, called the Al-Mandeb-2, which has a similar range.
The Norwegian Shipowners’ Mutual War Risk Insurance Association (DNK) also examined the wreckage from the aftermath of the Strinda attack and assessed that it was “very likely” that the ship had been hit by a C-802 or Noor anti-ship cruise missile.
Yemen did not have an arsenal of C-802 missiles before the Houthis seized control of the country’s capital, Sana’a, in 2014. When the Saudi-led coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in 2015 to replace the exiled government, Houthi arsenals became increasingly targeted. Soon, the new missiles found their way into rebel hands, even though Yemen has no domestic missile-making infrastructure.
Iran has long denied supplying weapons to the Houthis, likely due to a long-standing UN arms embargo on the rebels, but the United States and its allies Multiple arms shipments to rebel groups in Middle East watersWeapons experts also say Houthi weapons seized on the battlefield belong to Iran.
The United States has previously accused Iran of supplying the missiles the Houthis use in attacks at sea, but Wednesday’s report provided the first photographic evidence, pointing to an attack and seizure of an Iranian dhow sailing off the Somali coast overnight on January 11. Two Navy SEALs killedThe Navy has reportedly seized parts related to the Noor anti-ship cruise missile.
The Houthis have launched attacks from the sea since 2016, attacking the UAE ship SWIFT-1 with missiles. It sailed back and forth in the Red Sea between Eritrea and the UAE military base in Yemen.Around the same time, they also attempted an attack on the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mason.
But Houthi attacks have rapidly intensified since November over Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, with the rebels firing missiles and drones at more than 70 ships, killing four sailors. One ship was seized and 2 ships sunk since then.
The Houthis say they are targeting ships linked to Israel, the US and Britain as part of their support for the militant group Hamas in the war against Israel, but many of the ships they have attacked have little or no connection to the war, including some bound for Iran, which supports the Houthis.
“The Houthis, likely using weapons supplied by Iran, have conducted more than 100 attacks on onshore facilities in Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, as well as dozens of attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,” the Defense Intelligence Agency report said.
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and Naser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
