An alleged attack by Houthi rebels in Yemen hits a ship in the Red Sea

An alleged attack by Houthi rebels Yemen hit a ship in the Red Sea on Monday as a new U.S. aircraft carrier headed to the region to provide security for the crucial international trade route, which has been under attack since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas nine months ago.

The ship’s captain reported attacks by three small boats, two of which were manned and one of which was not, off the coast of Al Hudaydah, Yemen, according to the British Military Maritime Trade Operations Office (UKMTO).

The “small unmanned boat collided with the ship twice and the two small manned boats fired at the ship,” the UKMTO said. “The ship took self-protection measures, after 15 minutes the small boat aborted the attack.”

The captain later reported two separate rounds of missile attacks, about 45 minutes apart, that erupted near the vessel. The ship, whose name and flag were not published, and all crew were safe, the UKMTO said in a warning to sailors.

The Houthis did not immediately comment, but it can take hours or even days for them to claim responsibility for an attack.

The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt was heading to the Middle East to replace the Dwight D. Eisenhower, which spent several months in the Red Sea to confront the Houthis.

The US Central Command said in a statement on Sunday that its forces had destroyed two Houthi unmanned aircraft and a water drone in the Red Sea.

The rebels have attacked more than 70 ships with missiles and drones in a campaign that has killed four sailors. Since November they have seized one ship and sunk two.

The number of Houthi attacks on merchant vessels rose in June to levels not seen since December, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center, a coalition overseen by the U.S. Navy. The U.S. has led airstrikes against the Houthis since January, with a series of attacks on May 30 that killed at least 16 people and wounded 42 others, according to the rebels.

The Houthis maintain that they attack ships linked to Israel, the United States or the United Kingdom as part of their support for the Hamas armed group in its war against IsraelHowever, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the war and some were headed to Iran, a country that supports the Houthis.

The rebels said last week they had fired missiles at a U.S.-flagged container ship in the Gulf of Aden, in what officials said was the Houthis’ longest-range attack on a U.S. ship near the Arabian Sea.

The Joint Maritime Information Centre identified the ship as the Maersk Sentosa. Maersk, a Danish firm that is the world’s largest container shipping company, confirmed to The Associated Press that its ship had been attacked.