A Royal Navy warship has shot down a suspected attack drone targeting merchant vessels in the Red Sea, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said on Saturday.

Overnight, HMS Diamond fired a Sea Viper missile and destroyed a drone that was “targeting commercial vessels,” British minister Grant Shapps said, according to the Associated Press and News.ro.

It is the first time the British Royal Navy has shot down an air target since the 1991 Gulf War.

Shapps said attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on merchant ships “pose a direct threat to international trade and maritime security.”

“The UK remains committed to repelling these attacks to protect the free flow of global trade,” he said in a statement.

Global shipping has been targeted in the war between Israel and Hamas, which, like the Houthi rebels, is backed by Iran. Houthi rebels have carried out a series of attacks on ships in the Red Sea, as well as on drones and missiles aimed at Israel.

Earlier this month, three merchant vessels in the Red Sea were hit by ballistic missiles fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen, and a US warship shot down three drones during the attack, the Pentagon said.

On Friday, Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, told all its ships scheduled to pass through the Bab el Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea to “cease their voyage until further notice” after a missile attack on Liberian-flagged cargo ships. .

HMS Diamond was sent to the region two weeks ago as a deterrent, joining ships from the US, France and other nations.

Read also:

• Bulgaria announced the capture of one of its ships in the Arabian Sea / Houthi rebels claim that two more ships were attacked
• Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd suspend Red Sea transit after Houthi rebels attack