A French frigate shot down two drones heading towards the ship in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, the French armed forces said on Sunday, at a time of growing tension in this strategic maritime area.
These two “obvious threats” were intercepted and destroyed on Saturday night by the frigate Languedoc, which was operating in the Red Sea, the General Staff said in a statement.
The two interceptions occurred on Saturday night, at 9:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. (in Paris), (8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. in Lisbon), 110 kilometers from the Yemeni coast, near the city of Al-Hodeida.
Last week, a US destroyer shot down three drones while assisting commercial ships in the Red Sea, the target of attacks from Yemen, according to Washington, which denounced “a direct threat” to maritime security.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels threatened Saturday to attack any ship in the Red Sea bound for Israel if the people of the Gaza Strip do not receive the help they need.
The Yemeni rebels, who control Sanaa and other regions, are part of what they describe as an “axis of resistance” against Israel, along with groups such as the Islamic resistance movement Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, backed by Iran.
In a statement published on social networks, the Houthis declared that they “will prevent the passage of ships towards the Zionist entity” if the inhabitants of the Palestinian territory, bombed by Israel two months ago, stop receiving humanitarian aid, such as food and medicine.
This latest warning comes in a context of intensifying tensions in the Red Sea since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, which began on October 7, after a terrorist attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil.
Source: TSF
