Houthis damage cargo ship in Gulf of Aden as it steps up attacks

By Hatem Maher and Lisa Baertlein

CAIRO/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Yemen's Houthi rebels hit and damaged a Singapore-flagged container ship with two missiles on Friday as they escalate attacks on global shipping over Israel's war in Gaza.

The overnight assault on the Lobivia cargo ship came as the Iran-aligned Houthis also claimed responsibility for a fiery, long-range aerial drone strike in the center of Tel Aviv that killed one man and wounded four others.

The Houthis in recent weeks have become more adept at inflicting damage on their targets. In June, the militants struck the Greek-owned Tutor coal carrier with missiles and an explosive-laden remote-controlled boat, causing it to sink.

Tutor was the second ship sunk in the Houthi campaign against commercial shipping, which since November has killed at least three sailors and upended global trade by forcing ship owners to avoid the Suez Canal trade shortcut.

"Their capacity, their access to more sophisticated weapons, has only increased over the course of this conflict," said Gerald Feierstein, director of the Arabian Peninsula Affairs Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree in a television speech on Friday said the group launched the Lobivia strikes, adding that the assault also included drones. The manager of Lobivia did not immediately comment.

Lobivia was in the Gulf of Aden when the missiles struck two areas on its port side, the Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) said in an incident report.

The ship was located 83 nautical miles southeast of Yemen's port city of Aden during the attack. All crew are reported safe and the ship was returning to its last port of call, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said.

"The ship was transiting northeast along the Gulf of Aden when a merchant vessel in the vicinity observed 'light and blast' where the ship was located," British security firm Ambrey said.

The ship appeared to perform evasive manoeuvres immediately and switch off her automatic identification system approximately an hour later, Ambrey said.

On Tuesday, the Houthis hit the Liberia-flagged oil tanker Chios Lion with a drone boat, causing damage to the port side that left an oily trail that experts said appeared to be fuel.

Britain and the U.S. have conducted retaliatory strikes since February, shooting down drones and bombing attack sites in Yemen.

That has come at a significant cost, said Feierstein, who was the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen from 2010 to 2013 under President Barack Obama.

"We're basically spending a million dollars every time we shoot down a Radio Shack drone. That's wearing on the Navy and wearing on our supplies," he said.

(Reporting by Hatem Maher in Cairo, Clauda Tanios, Ahmed Elimam Nadine Awadalla and Nayera Abdallah in Dubai and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Christopher Cushing, Christina Fincher, Barbara Lewis and Diane Craft)