Iran-Backed Houthis Escalate Red Sea Attacks Despite US Strikes
A missile strike by Iran-backed Houthis killed two crew members of a cargo ship on Wednesday, US officials say, in the first fatal attack by the group in the Red Sea.
A missile strike by Iran-backed Houthis killed two crew members of a cargo ship on Wednesday, US officials say, in the first fatal attack by the group in the Red Sea.
Six more of the crew were injured and the ship had to be abandoned. Pentagon officials say it has been damaged but has not sunk yet.
The Houthis seem to have intensified their attacks this week. The US Central Command reported several exchanges of fire Monday and Tuesday, shooting down drones and anti-ship ballistic missiles, and destroying some in “Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.”
The ship targeted Wednesday was identified as True Confidence, a Liberian-owned vessel, formerly owned by an American company, according to the Associated Press. It had been heading to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia with steel products from China.
In a statement published shortly after the attack, the Houthi leadership claimed True Confidence was an “American ship” and that it was targeted “after the ship's crew rejected warning messages from the Yemeni naval forces.” It’s unclear if they made a mistake or if there are American connections beyond the previous owner.
The attack has once more raised questions over the efficacy of the US response so far to Houthi aggressions in the Red Sea, weeks after US and UK launched several airstrikes on the group’s sites inside Yemen.
“The Biden administration has allowed an Iranian proxy group of Yemeni outlaws to terrorize international shipping with deadly consequences,” Senator Tom Cotton posted on X,. “This is what weakness looks like.”
On Wednesday, the US State Department announced more shipping-related sanctions to restrict the Houthis’ access to funds.
“We are sanctioning two ship owners and identifying two vessels for shipping commodities on behalf of an Iran-based Houthi facilitator,” the state department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters. “The consequences of Houthi attacks are felt globally. We will continue to target funding streams that enable such destabilizing activities.”
Miller also called on Iran to “immediately release” the oil tanker Advantage Sweet, which Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized last year and announced Wednesday that its “$50 million worth” of crude oil will be unloaded.
Iran and their Houthi allies have managed to disrupt shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, forcing major operators to abandon the route for fear of missile and drone attacks.
On Sunday, a commercial vessel, Rubymar, sank in the Red Sea, two weeks after it was hit by Houthi missiles. It was carrying 21 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which experts have warned could pose “grave” environmental risks.
Critics of the administration have been suggesting for some time that deterrence can only work if the US targeted Iranian interests directly. But that seems to be a step that President Joe Biden and his team are not willing to take, fearing, as they have suggested on several occasions, a widening of conflicts in the Middle East.
“Biden isn't showing any sort of strength internationally and our enemies are taking advantage of it,” former national security advisor John Bolton said Wednesday. “His inadequate responses hasn't deterred any menacing behavior, which is why we are seeing these kinds of attacks. Our troops are in danger with Biden asleep at the wheel.”
Iran's proxies in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen have been engaged in a multi-front attack against US and Israeli interests since October, claiming support for Palestinians in Gaza.
On Tuesday, an Iran-backed group in Iraq launched a drone attack on Haifa airport, after a few weeks of inaction that followed US targeting of high-ranking Iraqi and Iranian officers.
