Houthis strike another US ship in Red Sea as Biden admits airstrikes have failed to disarm rebels

The Houthis launched anti-ship ballistic missiles at a US-owned ship late on Thursday as Joe Biden admitted that American airstrikes have failed to deter the militants’ attacks in the Red Sea.

The Iran-backed rebels said theylaunched two missiles targeting the “Chem Ranger” that caused «direct hits» on the ship. The US officials claimed the missiles hit the water, without damaging the tanker or causing injuries to those onboard.

The «fairly small chemical tanker left the Red Sea port of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for Kuwait, but her AIS (automatic identification system) went offline on (Tuesday) before proceeding south past Yemen», according to monitoring service TankerTrackers.com.

The recent attack is seen as a response to the American military's weeks-long airstrikes in Yemen targeting the Houthis amid the growing tension in the Red Sea that has disrupted global trade and raised fears of supply bottlenecks.

The Houthi militia has been targeting Israel-associated ships in and around the Red Sea for several weeks in an escalation of the war in Gaza.

President Biden on Thursday said his military would continue strikes against the Houthis but acknowledged that the airstrikes have failed to stop the militants. “When you say working, are they stopping the Houthis, no. Are they going to continue, yes," Mr Biden said.

A US official said the American military conducted a fifth strike Thursday morning that targeted another missile launcher site. A day before it fired another wave of ship-and-submarine-launch missile strikes against the militant-controlled sites.

The strikes were launched from the Red Sea and hit 14 missiles that the command deemed an “imminent threat".

The strikes followed an announcement that the US has put the