French Warship Escapes From Red Sea; French Cmdr: We Did Not Expect Ansar Allah’s Devastating Attacks!

According to Le Figaro newspaper, the Alsace battleship, belonging to the French Navy, retreated from the waters of Yemen towards the Suez Canal after the first confrontation with missile and drone attacks by the Yemeni Armed Forces in the Red Sea.  

The report also mentioned that the commander of the Alsace warship said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro about the reasons for this retreat: The withdrawal of our warship is due to the high level of threats from the Houthis (the Ansar Allah movement).

The commander went on to say: We have not been dealing with this level of war for a long time, and we did not expect to face such a level of threats and unlimited violence in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The French commander also said that the Houthis are remarkably adept and decisive in using drones and ballistic missiles. They are skilled in their technique, and the more they fire, the more accurate they become.

He also emphasized that the French frigate used all its military equipment from a two-million-dollar Aster missile to a machine gun during its confrontation with Ansar Allah’s attacks.

The French Navy, following the European Union’s decision to deploy military fleets to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in February 2023, sent two Alsace and Languedoc warships to the waters near Yemen. The Alsace frigate is equipped with an air defense system, and the Languedoc is an anti-submarine warfare frigate.  

The French army claims that during this period, the Languedoc warfare frigate shot down two suicide drones, and the Alsace warship destroyed three ballistic missiles from the Ansar Allah movement in the course of two operations in the Red Sea. The Alsace warship is the second European warship to leave the Red Sea and retreat after the Danish warship Iver Huitfeldt frigate.