Germany said today it will send a new frigate to the Red Sea in August to help secure maritime traffic, disrupted for months due to attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis. Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said that the 'Hamburg' will replace the 'Hessen', which left the zone today. The 'Hessen' had been deployed in the area on February 23 as part of the European Union's "Aspides" mission to protect ships in the area. The statement said the 'Hamburg' had escorted 27 merchant ships in the intervention zone and had on four occasions repulsed drone and missile attacks by the Houthis. It had around 240 military personnel on board. The Houthis began attacking ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea in November, a campaign they say is intended as a show of support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
A 17-year-old boy died as a result of being struck by a thunderbolt in Hajjah province, northwest of Yemen. A local source said that a boy died after being struck by a thunderbolt in Al-Muftah District, Hajjah. According to the source, the boy is called Mohamed Tawfiq. Two days ago, two young men died due to a thunderbolt in Sharaab District, north of Taiz province.
Health authorities in Taiz province have recorded four deaths from cholera since the beginning of this year. The Epidemiological Control Department of the Health and Population Office in Taiz stated that acute watery diarrhea and cholera have risen to 424 cases since the beginning of the year. It indicated that 136 cholera cases have been confirmed, while four deaths have been recorded so far. Yemen is witnessing a wave of outbreaks of the cholera epidemic in various governorates at a time when the United Nations has reported more than 11,000 confirmed and suspected cholera cases.
A huge blast at a military base in Iraq early on Saturday killed a member of an Iraqi security force that includes Iran-backed groups. The force commander said it was an attack while the army said it was investigating and there were no warplanes in the sky at the time. Two security sources had said earlier that an airstrike caused the blast, which killed a member of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and wounded eight others at Kalso military base about 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad.
