(Bloomberg) --

Yemen’s Houthis launched their largest missile and drone attack to date on ships in the Red Sea, forcing a response from US and UK forces patrolling the critical waterway.

American and British jets and warships shot down 18 drones and three anti-ship missiles around 9 p.m. local time on Tuesday, according to the US military.

It was the latest in a series of brazen attacks by the Iran-backed militant group on vessels in the southern Red Sea, ostensibly in support of Hamas in its war against Israel. In the past two months, the Houthis have fired missiles at container and military ships on an almost-daily basis. In November, they captured a car carrier.

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They have ignored warnings from the US and its allies to stop or face “consequences.” The White House, yet to comment on the latest incident, is considering military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, Bloomberg has reported.

The Yemeni group controls swathes of the country including the capital Sanaa and the port of Hodeida. It’s said it won’t back down until Israel stops fighting Hamas, which is also funded and trained by Iran.

There were no injuries or damage to merchant vessels reported during Tuesday’s “complex” assault, US Central Command said. It was the 26th Houthi shipping attack since Nov. 19, according to Centcom, which is responsible for the US military in the Middle East and parts of Asia.

The UK said the Houthi drones and missiles targeted both warships and commercial vessels. 

Ambrey Analytics, a maritime risk-management company, said it received information that “aerial projectiles” were seen around 50 miles off the coast of Hodeida, near the Bab el-Mandeb strait at the southern end of the Red Sea. Nine merchants ships adjusted their course at the time of the attack, according to Ambrey.

The attacks have forced many shipping companies to re-rout their vessels away from the Red Sea — which links to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal — and send them on a much longer route around southern Africa. That’s roiled supply chains and pushed up freight costs, potentially filtering through to the global economy and boosting inflation.

Over the past weekend, the number of transits through the Suez Canal fell to the lowest since it was blocked by a stuck container ship in 2021, according to Inchcape Shipping Services.

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While oil prices have been relatively stable, with Brent trading below $80 a barrel, traders are concerned about a prolonged period of attacks.

Rising Tensions

Tensions over the Israel-Hamas war have risen this year, with growing fears the conflict could spread further across the region.

In addition to its operations in Gaza against Hamas, a designated terrorist group by the US and European Union, Israel has traded fire with Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon. In the past week, it’s upped the ante by assassinating Hamas and Hezbollah commanders based in Lebanon.

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“This is a moment of profound tension in the region,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Sunday in Qatar. “This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering.”

The top US diplomat is on a whirlwind tour of the Middle East to try to prevent any escalation. He met Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, 

The US, which assembled a group of nations to help bolster security in the Red Sea, has so far held off on attacks against Houthi targets in Yemen, partly out of concern that would worsen the regional crisis.

Saudi Arabia, which borders Yemen and tried for most of the past decade to oust the Houthis from power, is wary that such a move would provoke even more aggressive action from the rebels.

Other Gulf states take the same view. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani – speaking alongside Blinken on Sunday – rejected a military response and warned it would only escalate regional tensions.

--With assistance from Jordan Fabian, Rakteem Katakey, Alex Longley and Iain Marlow.

(Updates with details from UK government and Ambrey.)

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