Yemeni armed forces say they have carried out three military operations, targeting Israeli port of Eilat, a British ship in the Gulf of Aden and a US destroyer in the Red Sea with a number of ballistic missiles and drones, reports Press TV.

A statement issued on Thursday said the operations were launched “in support of the oppressed Palestinian people, and as part of the response to the American-British aggression on our country”.

“The second operation took place in the Gulf of Aden, where the Yemeni Armed Forces' naval forces targeted a British ship (ISLANDER) in the Gulf of Aden with a number of appropriate naval missiles, hitting it directly, which led to a fire on board by the grace of Allah.

“The third operation involved targeting an American destroyer in the Red Sea with a number of drones,” the statement said.

Earlier Thursday, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said a UK-owned ship was set on fire off the southern coast of Yemen after being struck in a missile attack in the Gulf of Aden.

The strike, it said, saw two missiles fired at the ship some 70 nautical miles southeast of Aden. US-led coalition forces are responding to the incident, the UKMTO added.

Ship-tracking data identified the vessel ablaze as a Palau-flagged cargo ship named Islander.

The private security firm Ambrey also said “the missile attack led to a fire onboard and coalition military assets were responding to the incident.”

Yemen’s armed forces have introduced “submarine weapons” in their attacks on vessels either owned by Israel or associated with the regime, Ansarullah Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said on Thursday.

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