Senate Hearing: Houthis ‘Armed with Sophisticated Tech from Iran’ Launch ‘Dizzying Barrage of Attacks’ on Red Sea Shipping

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, held a hearing Tuesday to discuss the Houthi terror attacks on Red Sea shipping.

Expert witnesses testified to the immense financial damage inflicted by Houthi piracy, and the humanitarian danger created by interrupted food shipments.

In his opening remarks, Murphy claimed the Red Sea crisis vindicated his belief that it was a “catastrophic mistake for the United States and our Arab partners” to intervene in the Yemeni civil war.

This was a curious argument to make since the Houthis have never pointed to that intervention as the reason they are attacking civilian ships in the Red Sea — they have consistently and repeatedly stated they are acting on behalf of the Palestinians by pressuring Israel and its allies to halt the Israeli operation against Hamas in Gaza.

Murphy declared himself an ardent supporter of President Joe Biden’s “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” which is also a curious position to take because Biden’s strategy in the Red Sea has proven completely ineffective at deterring the terrorists or degrading their offensive capabilities.

WATCH — Pentagon: “Some” Houthi Attacks Are Getting Through Despite Us Damaging “Some” of Their Capabilities:

The Houthis launched more attacks within hours of Murphy’s hearing. Yemeni television on Monday gleefully ran footage of the ship most severely damaged by Houthi strikes, the British-owned MV Rubymar, sinking off the Hanish Islands in the Red Sea. Shipping companies are frantically rerouting away from the Houthi-threatened region at colossal expense, and those that still dare to sail near Yemen are making last-ditch efforts to protect themselves by claiming their crew is Chinese, Syrian, or some other nationality favored by the Houthis. None of that demonstrates much confidence in Biden’s ability to protect freedom of navigation.

“Armed with sophisticated technology from Iran, and coordinated with the Iranian military, the Houthis have launched a dizzying barrage of attacks — missiles, underwater drones, aerial drones — against ships transiting through the Red Sea,” he said.

Murphy noted that Yemen itself is one of the major humanitarian crisis zones that has been put in even greater jeopardy by Houthi attacks on ships hauling aid shipments. The Houthis attacked a U.S.-owned ship called the MV Sea Champion on February 19 that was carrying humanitarian aid to Yemen.

Murphy called for more aggressive action against the Houthis, but insisted Congress must be allowed to do its Constitutional duty to “authorize acts of war.”

“If we believe this is a just military action — and I do — then we should authorize it. But we also need to acknowledge that there is a real risk of escalation in the Red Sea, especially since Iran is unquestionably aiding the actions of the Houthis,” he said.

The Senate committee heard testimony from U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen Timothy A. Lenderking, who said the Houthis are not only bringing more hardship to the long-suffering Yemeni people, but their actions are “jeopardizing the very real accomplishments of multilateral diplomacy over the past three years.”

“Despite the Houthis’ illegal and reckless maritime attacks, the April 2022 truce between Yemen’s warring parties continues to hold. Violence inside Yemen remains at the lowest levels since 2015, and Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, while still acute, is less severe than at its peak. Until the Houthis’ escalation, average Yemenis were beginning to see a way back to stability,” he said.

Lenderking blasted the Houthis for “throwing this progress away to serve their own self-interested political agenda, aligning with Iran, at the expense of the Yemeni people.” He also pointed to the environmental impact of launching missiles and kamikaze drones at “oil tankers and other ships carrying hazardous materials.”

The U.S. envoy said Iran’s support for Houthi terrorism, including weapons shipments and support from Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah operatives, “must stop,” although he offered no clear suggestions on how to stop it. Part of his testimony stressed the dangers of escalating the conflict by going further than the pinprick strikes on missile launchers and ammo dumps authorized by the Biden administration so far.

Lenderking touted the administration’s “designation of the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist” group on February 16, without dwelling on President Biden’s baffling determination to remove the much more effective Foreign Terrorist Organization designation on the Houthis as soon as he came into office.

Lenderking merely repeated the administration’s claim that applying the stronger designation against the Houthis would make it harder to deliver humanitarian aid to sick and starving Yemenis — but as he and Murphy both admitted, the Houthis are already bombing ships full of food headed for Yemen.

WATCH — U.S. Forces Strikes Houthi Targets in Red Sea Show of Defense:

Lenderking concluded by almost pleading with the Houthis to stop their attacks:

Even as we degrade and disrupt Houthis capabilities, squeeze their terrorist financing, and shame them on the world stage, we must also seek diplomatic off-ramps to bring an end to these Houthi attacks. Let me be clear — we do not seek this confrontation, but we will respond to Houthi attacks. We are working multiple channels to make clear to the Houthis that the possibility of peace remains if they cease their attacks immediately. But with every missile launched, they run the risk of an even greater catastrophe that could doom the prospects of any agreement.

Lenderking insisted the Biden administration does not “seek escalation or wider conflict in the region,” but then admitted the Houthis “appear determined to continue their reckless course for now” – quite literally ceding the initiative to the Iran-backed terrorists.

Dan Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel who was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East in December, told the committee that despite their stated intentions, the Houthi attacks are “almost entirely unrelated to Israel and Israeli-affiliated shipping” — and even if that were not true, the attacks “would be entirely illegitimate anyway.”

“These attacks have prompted more than a dozen major shipping operators to suspend transits of the Red Sea, caused a spike in insurance rates for vessels in the region, and, most importantly, put the lives of innocent mariners and our service members at risk,” he said.

Shapiro noted that Houthi piracy is driving up food and medicine prices, and “causing delivery delays in critical humanitarian items,” to almost every crisis zone in the world. He also pointed to the immense financial damage Egypt has incurred by losing $100 million a month in Suez Canal revenues, a hard blow to a shaky Egyptian economy.

Shapiro provided details of the environmental damage mentioned by Lenderking:

Most recently, the Houthis launched a series of ASBMs and UAS attacks against commercial ships in the Red Sea, including ones that impacted the M/V Islander on February 22 and the M/V Rubymar on February 18. 

The Houthi attack on the Islander injured a crewmember, while the attack on the Rubymar severely damaged the vessel, put it at risk of sinking, forced the crew to abandon ship, and caused an 18-mile oil slick. 

The Houthis also launched weapons toward our warships, including an ASCM that the USS Laboon intercepted. 

ASBMs are Anti-Ship Ballistic Missiles, while UAS is Unmanned Aircraft System, the bomb-laden drones frequently employed by the Houthis in their attacks on shipping. The USS Laboon is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer that has intercepted numerous Houthi weapons since the Red Sea crisis began, including missiles targeting the destroyer itself.

An ASCM is an Anti-Ship Cruise Missile, one of the more advanced weapons provided to the Houthis by Iran. U.S. airstrikes have destroyed several mobile ASCM launchers in Yemen. On January 11, the U.S. Navy seized a shipment of Iranian weapons bound for Yemen that included both medium-range ballistic missiles and ASCMs. Two Navy SEALs were tragically lost during the operation.

Shapiro said the administration’s strategy is to “internationalize” the Houthi attacks by demonstrating that their terrorism is affecting many nations beyond the U.S., UK, and Israel. Unfortunately, that fact is quite evident — the Egyptians have certainly noticed the $100 million per month in Suez Canal revenue missing from their treasury — but most regional powers and many world governments remain unwilling to commit themselves to fighting Houthi piracy, either because they are reluctant to interfere with terrorism that supposedly benefits the Palestinian cause, or because they are worried about escalating the conflict.

Shapiro noted that the U.S. and allied forces have demonstrated impressive capabilities to intercept Houthi drones and missiles, and they have now “struck over 230 targets in Houthi-controlled Yemen through both deliberate and self-defense strikes.” He said these attacks have probably destroyed “hundreds of Houthi weapons,” added to the Iranian shipments intercepted at sea, and the missiles and drones blown out of the sky by allied warships and planes.

And yet, the Houthis persist in launching attacks. On the same day as the Senate hearing, Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said nothing will stop the attacks except pressuring Israel to back down from its war against Hamas.

“There will be no halt to any operations that help Palestinian people except when the Israeli aggression on Gaza and the siege stop,” Abdulsalam vowed.

Shortly after the Houthis delivered this statement, a new missile attack was reported against a Greek-owned bulk carrier sailing northwest of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah. Houthi-controlled media said U.S. and British forces responded with airstrikes near Hodeidah in retaliation.