Great Britain admits it lacks the ability to attack Yemeni positions in the Red Sea

 Yemen has intensified attacks in support of the Palestinians on ships either owned by Israel or headed for Israeli-occupied territories. On Sunday, Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper quoted an unnamed UK defense source as saying that "HMS Diamond, the Royal Navy destroyer stationed in the Red Sea, lacks the ability to strike land targets". "HMS Diamond, this source said, was instead involved in shooting down Yemeni Ansarullah Popular Movement drones targeting ships in the Red Sea," with the only operational weapon systems being fixed artillery guns. Britain has joined the United States in conducting operations against the Yemeni Armed Forces and Ansarullah in a bid to stop their attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea. The US Navy has had to carry out most of the attacks on Yemeni territory. “It is clearly a scandal and completely unsatisfactory; this is what happens when the Royal Navy is forced to make reckless decisions which could affect defense capabilities," a former senior British defense chief told the Daily Telegraph newspaper. "The UK now has to send Royal Air Force jets thousands of miles away to do the job of what a surface-to-surface missile can do." Tory MP Mark Francois, a former armed forces minister, also told the Daily Telegraph that "the lack of a land-attack missile in the Royal Navy's fleet was highlighted in a defense committee report about two years ago". "It is disappointing that such a missile is still not in operational service," he added.