Italian frigate joins Aspides military mission in Red Sea

The European Union's Aspedas military mission announced on Saturday that an Italian frigate has joined its forces to protect navigation in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

"We welcome the crew of the Italian frigate Andrea Doria, which will support our mission to protect freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden," Aspedas said in a post on the X platform.

She added that "Andrea Doria" replaced the Italian frigate "ITS VIRGINIO FASAN", which completed several direct protection missions for merchant ships passing through the "Aspedes" operations area after it began its work on April 19.

Aspedas stressed that it "operates with a defence mandate as a trusted provider of maritime security in the European Union, to protect freedom of navigation in the area of ​​operations and contribute to restoring the safe passage of commercial vessels."

On February 19, the European Union announced the launch of a European naval mission called "Aspedes" to protect commercial ships in the Red Sea from Houthi attacks.

In "solidarity with Gaza", which is facing a devastating Israeli war with American support, the Houthis targeted Israeli or Israeli-linked cargo ships with missiles and drones in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean and all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.

Since the beginning of this year, a US-led coalition has been launching raids that it says target Houthi sites in various parts of Yemen in response to their attacks in the Red Sea.