Houthi attack forces crew to abandon cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden.

The crew of a cargo ship in the Red Sea was forced to abandon ship after it came under attack on Monday from the Houthi militia in Yemen, who have been firing missiles at ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in what the group says is a campaign to pressure Israel to end its war in the Gaza Strip.

The attack on the ship, the Rubymar, appeared to be one of the Houthis’ most successful so far. Most of the armed group’s missile and drone assaults on ships have failed to inflict serious damage.

A Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, said in a statement on Monday that the militia had fired “a number of missiles” at the vessel, severely damaging it, bringing it to a “complete halt” and leaving it “at risk of sinking.” The New York Times could not verify those claims.

An employee who answered the phone at the Rubymar’s management office in Lebanon, GMZ Ship Management, confirmed that the attack had taken place and that the crew had abandoned ship, but said the company would not provide further information until the crew reaches a safe port.

A British government maritime agency also reported that a ship had come under attack about 30 nautical miles south of al-Mokha in Yemen, prompting the crew to abandon it. The agency did not identify the ship.

The Houthis, an Iran-backed militia that controls much of northwestern Yemen, have carried out dozens of attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden over the past few months, portraying the attacks as a campaign to pressure Israel to end its siege on Gaza.