Combined U.S. military forces are being rushed to the Middle East to deter an Iranian response in the wake of Israel’s enhanced air campaign against Hezbollah and the start of a ground operation in southern Lebanon to remove terrorist outposts that threaten Israeli communities, U.S. and Israeli officials said Monday.
Tehran announced Monday it has sent a warship into the increasingly contested waters of the Red Sea as navies from other nations work to stem attacks from Iran-backed Houthi terrorists.
Ongoing tumult across the Red Sea driven by Houthi terrorist attacks spurred global shipping giant Maersk on Sunday to announce it was suspending the passage of vessels through the area for 48 hours.
India is deploying three guided missile destroyers to the Arabian Sea after a drone last week hit an “Israel-affiliated” merchant vessel off its western coast.
Australia is considering a U.S. request to send a warship to the Red Sea to help protect shipping from attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Clashes have broken out in southern Yemen between two groups respectively backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, countries within the coalition fighting against the Iranian-supported Shiite Houthi rebels.
The son of ex-Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh has called for retaliation against the Iran-linked Houthi rebels who killed the former leader, accusing him of “treachery” for offering to “turn a new page” with the Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting the Shiite insurgents in Yemen.
U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis pressed for a political settlement of the Yemen conflict between the Saudi-led coalition and Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels when he arrived in the Riyadh this week as part of a multi-nation tour of the Middle East and North Africa.
The largest weapons manufacturer in Latin America, Brazil-based Forjas Taurus SA, has reportedly been accused by Brazilian prosecutors of selling some 8,000 handguns to a known arms trafficker from war-ravaged Yemen in violation of international sanctions.
Iran has dismissed accusations by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that it delivered missiles to Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Hamza bin Laden, the son of the late al Qaeda leader, has urged young Saudis in a new audio message to train with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to “gain the necessary experience” to overthrow Saudi Arabia’s kingdom, a U.S. ally, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadi activity online.
A resurgent al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is capitalizing on the deadly civil war in Yemen, emerging as the strongest jihadist group in the country while a Saudi-led coalition concentrates on routing the Shiite Houthis and the West focuses on the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).
