The Spokesman for Yemeni armed forces said the new operation by forces has targeted a US merchant vessel in the Red Sea.

Brigadier General Yahya Saree said in a televised speech broadcast live from the Yemeni capital Sana’a on Monday that the Yemeni military had carried out an operation against Star Iris bulk carrier with a number of “appropriate” naval missiles, and that the strikes were accurate and direct.

He added that the missile attack came as part of the Yemeni forces’ religious, ethical and humanitarian duties, reiterating that the Arab nation’s naval units will continue their attacks in the Red Sea and the Arab Sea against Israeli-affiliated ships until the Tel Aviv regime halts its aggression on Gaza and lifts its tight siege against Palestinians in the territory.

Saree further noted that the Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to carry out more operations in response to the relentless Israeli onslaught against the oppressed Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and in response to joint American-British aggression against the Republic of Yemen.

Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7 after the territory’s Palestinian resistance movements carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.

The United States and United Kingdom have been carrying out strikes against Yemen after the Biden administration and its allies offered the Tel Aviv regime unqualified support and said that Yemeni forces bear the consequences of their attacks against Israeli-owned ships or merchant vessels heading to the occupied territories.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have said that they won’t stop their attacks until unrelenting Israeli ground and aerial offensives in Gaza, which have killed at least 26,751 people and wounded 65,636 others, come to an end.

Leader of the Ansarullah resistance movement, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, has said that it is “a great honor and blessing to be confronting America directly.”

The attacks have forced some of the world’s biggest shipping and oil companies to suspend transit through one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes. Tankers are instead adding thousands of miles to international shipping routes by sailing around the continent of Africa rather than going through the Suez Canal.