The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack on Wednesday, which set the Greek-owned, Barbados-flagged ship True Confidence ablaze approximately 50 nautical miles (93km) off the coast of Yemen’s port of Aden.

“The targeting operation came after the ship’s crew rejected warning messages from the Yemeni naval forces,” the militia’s military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech.

The True Confidence is owned by the Liberian-registered company True Confidence Shipping and operated by the Greece-based Third January Maritime, both firms said in their joint statement. They said the ship had no link to the US.

However, it had previously been owned by Oaktree Capital Management, a Los Angeles-based fund that finances vessels on instalments.

The Houthis “will not stop until the aggression is stopped and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted”, Saree said.