Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed to have hypersonic missiles
Dubai, March 15 (AP) Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed to have a new hypersonic missile in their arsenal that could hit targets in and around the Red Sea amid the war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip, Russian state media said Thursday. The risk of attacks by Houthi rebels on ships in the waterway has increased.
Russia’s state-owned ‘RIA Novosti’ news agency reported this news quoting an unidentified official but did not provide any evidence in support of this claim.
Top Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said on Thursday that the rebels would launch attacks on ships heading towards the Cape of Good Hope off the southern tip of Africa. So far, rebels have attacked ships sailing through the Red Sea towards the Suez Canal. It is not yet clear how they will carry out any possible attack.
Meanwhile, Iran and the US are reported to be holding indirect talks in Oman amid long-standing tensions over Tehran’s rapidly expanding nuclear program and attacks by its proxy groups.
Iran, the Houthi’s biggest patron, claims to have a hypersonic missile and has widely equipped the rebels with the missiles they now use. The presence of hypersonic missiles in the arsenal of the Houthi rebels could pose a more serious challenge to the air defense systems of the US and its allies, including Israel.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment on Thursday. Regarding the hypersonic claim, Sabrina Singh, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Department of Defense, said, “We have no indication that they have this capability.”
The Israeli army has also refused to comment on this.