Houthis creating environmental hazard 'in their own backyard' with ship attacks: Pentagon

Yemen's Houthi group is creating an environmental hazard "in their own backyard" with their ongoing attacks on ships, the Pentagon said Thursday.

During a press briefing, deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh noted that the Rubymar cargo vessel was attacked by the group in the Gulf of Aden and is currently taking on water "as we speak.”

"It's creating an environmental hazard with the leakage of all the fuel that it's carrying. On top of that, it was carrying, to my understanding, fertilizer," she told reporters. "So the Houthis are creating an environmental hazard right in their own backyard.”

Singh said the Houthis also hit a ship that was “carrying grain towards Yemen for their own citizens, for a starving population.”

"So again, they're saying that they're conducting these attacks against ships that are connected to Israel. These are ships that are literally bringing goods, services, aid to their own people, and they're creating their own international problem," she said.

Singh also revealed that the US has seen in the past 48-72 hours an increase in attacks from the Houthis, with "more consistency.”

The Houthis have been targeting cargo ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden owned or operated by Israeli companies or transporting goods to and from Israel in solidarity with the Gaza Strip, which has been under an Israeli onslaught since Oct. 7.

With tensions escalating due to joint strikes by the US and UK against Houthi targets in Yemen, the group declared that it considered all American and British ships legitimate military targets.