The U.S. State Department condemned on Wednesday a string of missile and drone attacks on American and British commercial vessels by the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen.
The attacks were evidence that President Joe Biden’s “Operation Prosperity Guardian” has done little to protect shipping or deter Houthi attacks.
The State Department condemned the latest round of Houthi assaults on “civilian shipping and innocent mariners” as terrorism and piracy. The statement noted that the Houthis have frequently targeted ships carrying food headed for starving countries, including Yemen itself, so their actions are “adversely affecting those in need of assistance around the world.”
“Contrary to what the Houthis may attempt to claim, their attacks do nothing to help the Palestinians. Their actions are not bringing a single morsel of assistance or food to the Palestinian people,” the statement added.
After castigating the Houthis for making hungry people suffer, including Palestinians and Yemenis, and jeopardizing the fragile peace process in the Yemeni civil war, the State Department stopped short of laying out specific consequences if the pirate attacks do not cease – a remarkable choke, given that the Houthis have successfully defied the United States and United Kingdom to shut down one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
The State Department said:
We and our partners will continue to take appropriate action, as needed, to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi attacks in this critical international waterway and to safeguard vital economic and humanitarian assistance to countries in the region.
Nothing the Biden administration has done so far has “safeguarded” anything, although American and British warships have made valiant efforts to defend themselves and intercept Houthi attacks that might have dealt more severe damage to civilian vessels.
The Biden administration announced a coalition to protect shipping against the Houthis in December. Dubbed “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” the mission supposedly included over 20 international partners, although very few of them have done more than offer “staff or other types of support” and some refused to even be named in public.
The Biden administration allowed the Houthis to attack both American military and civilian vessels with impunity for weeks, and then finally authorized limited airstrikes against a few targets along the Yemen coast.
As the Navy Times pointed out on Tuesday, those strikes have not noticeably degraded the Houthis’ ability to launch terror attacks against civilian vessels. In fact, the Houthis just pulled off their most devastating strike against a freighter, forcing the crew of the British-owned, Belize-flagged MV Rubymar to abandon ship on Sunday.
The Rubymar was still abandoned in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday morning, remaining afloat but taking on water. The owners are reportedly exploring the possibility of towing it to Djibouti, but a maritime advisory has been issued for all craft to avoid the area around the stricken vessel, suggesting fears that the Houthis would attack a rescue operation.
“The campaign has boosted the rebels’ standing in the Arab world, despite their own human rights abuses in a years-long stalemated war with several of America’s allies in the region. Analysts warn that the longer their attacks go on, the greater the risk that disruptions to international shipping will begin to weigh down on the global economy,” the Navy Times glumly observed.
The Houthis attacked two American cargo ships on Monday and also reportedly downed a top-shelf MQ-9 Reaper drone, a debacle confirmed by the Pentagon on Wednesday. Houthi media posted a video of its fighters triumphantly hauling pieces of Reaper wreckage out of the ocean. Reaper drones cost up to $30 million apiece, depending on loadout.
“A U.S. MQ-9 was downed or went down off the coast of Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, in the Red Sea. Initial indications are that it was shot down by a Houthi surface-to-air missile,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Wednesday.
One of the American ships attacked on Monday, the MV Sea Champion, was reportedly carrying much-needed grain to Yemen. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) added that the destroyer USS Laboon was attacked by ten bomb-laden drones and an anti-ship cruise missile early this week, but was able to intercept the weapons.
CENTCOM said retaliatory U.S. strikes destroyed a surface-to-air missile launcher and a drone, but the Houthis were undeterred, insisting their attacks would continue until Israel halts its campaign against the Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
“What the world is impatiently awaiting is not the militarization of the Red Sea, but rather an urgent and comprehensive declaration of a ceasefire in Gaza for humanitarian reasons that are clear to anyone. The Israeli entity would not have continued its crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza had it not been for this blind support by the Americans, the British, and some Europeans,” a Houthi spokesman said on social media.
The Houthis launched another missile attack on Thursday, this time reportedly setting a Palau-flagged cargo ship called the Islander on fire in the Gulf of Aden.
The Islander was one of several ships that have demonstrated zero confidence in the Biden administration’s protection by broadcasting messages that they have non-Western crew members aboard, desperately hoping the Houthis will spare them. One of the ships hit on Monday, the MV Navis Fortuna, tried broadcasting messages that it had an “all-Chinese” crew. The Islander was sending out messages that said “Syrian crew on board.”
The Houthis opened fire with at least two missiles, starting a fire on board, and were apparently able to fire missiles at the Israeli city of Eilat at roughly the same time. Israel’s Arrow defense system was able to intercept some of the missiles fired at Eilat.
Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that the Houthis and their Iranian patrons are “shoring up military and defense capabilities to continue attacking ships.”
Among other measures, the Houthis are moving their missile launchers to fortified mountain hideouts – whose elevation could help them hit targets even further away in the Arabian Sea – and testing new drone weapons, including unmanned underwater vessels (UUV). Saudi Arabia, which has fought the Houthis in Yemen for years, warned the insurgents might use their undersea capabilities to cut vital Internet cables running through the Red Sea.
CENTCOM said on Sunday that one of its “self-defense” strikes destroyed a UUV the Houthis were preparing to launch against an unknown target in the Red Sea.
Rashad al-Alimi, head of the globally recognized government that the Houthi insurgency toppled in 2014, said at the Munich Security Conference last weekend that the Houthis are emboldened by their success and have begun “seeking to extract Western concessions that have nothing to do with the Israeli-Hamas conflict.”
Alimi called the situation a “strategic dream for Iran,” which has humiliated the Biden administration and developed considerable terror leverage over international trade without firing a shot itself.
The leader of the insurgents, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, crowed last week that the world is “witnessing strategic failure when it comes to American influence and control in the region.”
The Houthis claim they have lost about 22 of their 20,000 fighters to American-led airstrikes, a modest price to pay for their soaring prestige in the Middle East.
Italian Institute for International Political Studies fellow Eleonora Ardemagni warned on Tuesday the Houthis will be “tempted to further escalate against U.S. interests in the Red Sea and the region,” while “deterrence options” are dwindling for the Biden administration.
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