Tel Aviv. The strikes of the US and its European partners on Houthi targets in Yemen are a bad joke, according to Israel defence sources. “The Houthis killed two sailors and the so called Western coalition continues to act in a way that does not affect the Iranian proxy’s capabilities,” one of the sources said.

A missile strike by Iran-backed Houthis killed two crew members of a cargo ship on March 6, 2024, US officials say, in the first fatal attack by the group in the Red Sea. Six more of the crew were injured and the ship had to be abandoned. Pentagon officials say it has been damaged but has not sunk yet.

According to Iran International, the London based website, operated by the opposition to the regime in Tehran, the Houthis seem to have intensified their attacks this week.

“The US Central Command reported several exchanges of fire on Monday and Tuesday, shooting down drones and anti-ship ballistic missiles, and destroying some in “Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen,” the website reported.

According  to the website, the ship targeted on March 6 was identified as True Confidence, a Liberian-owned vessel, formerly owned by an American company. It had been heading to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia with steel products from China.

In a statement published shortly after the attack, the Houthi leadership claimed True Confidence was an “American ship” and that it was targeted “after the ship’s crew rejected warning messages from the Yemeni naval forces.” It’s unclear if they made a mistake or if there are American connections beyond the previous owner.

The website says that the attack has once more raised questions over the efficacy of the US response so far to Houthi aggressions in the Red Sea, weeks after US and UK launched several airstrikes on the group’s sites inside Yemen.

“The Biden administration has allowed an Iranian proxy group of Yemeni outlaws to terrorise international shipping with deadly consequences,” Senator Tom Cotton posted on X,. “This is what weakness looks like.”