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Yemen’s Houthis said on Saturday their missiles hit the Andromeda Star oil tanker in the Red Sea, as they continue attacking commercial ships in the area in a show of support for Palestinians fighting Israel in the Gaza war.

US Central Command confirmed that Iran-backed Houthis launched three anti-ship ballistic missiles into the Red Sea from Yemen, causing minor damage to the Andromeda Star.

The tanker was engaged in Russia-linked trade and was en route from Russia’s Primorsk to India’s Vadinar.

The ship’s master reported damage to the vessel, British maritime security firm Ambrey said.

A missile landed in the vicinity of a second vessel, the MV Maisha, but it was not damaged, USCentral Command said on social media site X.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Sarea said the Panama-flagged Andromeda Star was British-owned, but shipping data shows it was recently sold, according to LSEG data and Ambrey.

Its current owner is Seychelles-registered.

Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched repeated drone and missile strikes in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden since November, forcing shippers to re-route cargo to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa and stoking fears the Israel-Hamas war could spread and destabilise the Middle East.

The attack on the Andromeda Star comes after a brief pause in the Houthis’ campaign that targets ships with ties to Israel, the United States and Britain.

The USS Dwight D Eisenhower aircraft carrier sailed out of the Red Sea via the Suez Canal on Friday after assisting a US-led coalition to protect commercial shipping.

The Houthis on Friday said they downed an American MQ-9 drone in the airspace of Yemen’s Saada province.