The Houthi assault on global shipping
The press is reporting that the Biden Administration is contemplating the use of military force in response to continuing attacks on commercial shipping by the Houthi militia in Yemen. It’s about time. The Houthi missile attacks pose the most significant threat to global shipping in decades, and they will continue unless a global coalition unites to stop them.
The USS Carney, a destroyer operating in the Red Sea, shot down no fewer than 14 attack drones launched from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen on Saturday. A British warship shot down a Houthi drone after it was dispatched to the region to protect commercial ships. This follows weeks of similar attacks that U.S.
warships have felt obliged to intercept to protect themselves and other ships. The Houthis have said their attacks are aimed at stopping Israeli vessels transiting the Red Sea, which is bad enough. But the missiles and drones are targeting commercial ships willy-nilly.
On Friday a Houthi drone struck a Liberian-flagged ship in the Red Sea, and the Houthis launched two ballistic missiles, one of which struck another commercial ship. The well-armed Houthis have long been a regional threat, but now they are becoming a global menace. They may be the strongest Iranian proxy, stronger even than Hezbollah.
They are the only one with medium-range ballistic missiles and the only one to fire antiship ballistic missiles. Their attacks are making the Red Sea nonnavigable, and major commercial shipping lines have announced they will cease sending ships into harm’s way. Maersk, the shipping giant, has stopped sending vessels through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that has become a Houthi fire zone.
Read more on livemint.com
