Houthis expand naval assaults, targeting ship far from previous strikes [Video]

• Yemen’s Houthi rebels are suspected of launching an attack in the Gulf of Aden, targeting a ship near Nishtun, Yemen, close to Oman’s border.
• The attack was one of the furthest from previous assaults by the Houthis, occurring near Yemen’s Socotra Island.
• The UK Maritime Trade Operations reported an explosion near a merchant vessel, with the crew reported safe as the ship continued to its next port.

A possible attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Monday targeted a ship further away from nearly all of the previous assaults they’ve launched in the Gulf of Aden, officials said, potentially part of a widening escalation by the group.

The attack comes as the U.S.has sent the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower back home after an eight-month deployment in which it led the American response to the Houthi assaults. Those attacks have reduced shipping drastically through the route crucial to Asian, Middle East and European markets in a campaign …