An alleged attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels caused numerous explosions near two vessels sailing in the Red Sea on Tuesday evening. The ships suffered no damage and there were no injuries, authorities said. Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder stated: «Based on the information we have the aircraft carrier Lincoln was not attacked», then Ryder confirmed that «two vessels were targeted with drones and missiles and there will be consequences for this reckless attack». The Iran-backed Houthis did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack, but this is not unusual as it could take hours or even days for the rebels to take full responsibility for an action. The attack is part of a campaign that the Houthis have been carrying out for months, targeting maritime routes along a stretch of sea where goods worth around 1 trillion dollars transit every year. This occurs in a context marked by the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and by Israel’s land intervention in Lebanon. In more than 100 attacks conducted by the Houthis over the past year, four sailors have been killed, two ships sunk, and one ship and its crew are still detained after being hijacked last November. The group claims attacks against global shipping and Israel. The terrorist group has repeatedly stated that “the attacks will continue as long as the wars last and our assaults have already halved shipping across the region.” What is certain is that the attacks have caused major disruptions in a major global shipping lane, which carries around 12% of world trade. This led to retaliatory operations by the US and UK against rebel targets in Yemen which shot down several American MQ-9 Reaper drones during the year. Israel also conducted two bombing raids on Houthi positions in response to ballistic missile and drone attacks, including one that killed one person in Tel Aviv. Yemeni terrorists say they are targeting ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK in a bid to halt Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
However, many of the attacked ships appear to have little or no connection to the conflict, including those that are bound for Iran. The last Houthi maritime attack, which took place on October 28, hit the tanker Motaro, flying the Liberian flag. Previously, on October 10, the chemical tanker Olympic Spirit, also flying the Liberian flag, was attacked. It is unclear why the frequency of Houthi attacks has decreased, even though they have also fired missiles at Israel. On October 17, the US military deployed B-2 stealth bombers to strike underground bunkers used by rebels. Furthermore, in recent days, US air raids have targeted Houthi positions and in this sense the television network of the pro-Iranian jihadist group al-Masirah reported three American and British raids which targeted the southern district of al-Masirah Sabeen, in the capital Sanaa. The attacks against the Houthis occurred three days after statements by the group’s leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, who criticized the new US president Donald Trump for his support for Israel.
According to the Houthis, the normalization agreements between Arab countries and Israel promoted by Trump have not contributed to resolving the conflict in the Middle East and they believe that his next presidential term is doomed to failure. Same tone as Iran which, through Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, said that “the United States will suffer another major defeat if it tries again to apply the ‘maximum pressure’ policy on Iran” repeatedly evoked by Trump. Now, knowing the state of the Iranian economy already bent by sanctions, Tehran’s threats to Donald Trump raise a smile considering that in recent days electricity distribution companies in the Iranian capital and in some provinces of the country have announced rolling blackouts in residential and commercial areas starting from Sunday, in response to the growing energy crisis and here we will have to see if there will be a popular reaction with the Tehran regime which uses many resources to export terrorism throughout the world. Finally, overnight American forces attacked a series of targets linked to an Iranian-backed militia in Syria in response to a missile attack against Washington’s troops in the country. The strikes targeted “the weapons depot and logistics headquarters facility in response to a missile attack against US personnel,” CENTCOM, US Central Command, said in a social media post.
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