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File Photo: The U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Mason pulls alongside a fleet replenishment oiler in the Atlantic Ocean, July 17, 2021.
American sailors arrest Houthi militants
Lost in the good news over a two-day extension of the humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza and the promised release of more captured civilians, is an event that could signal the rising risk of a broader Middle East war. On Sunday, a US warship captured five armed Houthi militants attempting to flee an Israeli-linked tanker they had briefly seized off the coast of Yemen. This is just the latest belligerent exchange between US forces and militants aligned with Iran. As in other cases, two missiles fired at the US ship from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen looked more like a fist-shake than a serious attempt to hurt anyone.
But these incidents are likely to escalate as the Qatari-brokered cease-fire between Israel and Hamas ends in the coming days and the fighting intensifies sharply in southern Gaza. There is no evidence that Houthis and other Iranian proxies are following direct orders from Tehran, even if they share Iran’s view of the war. But if militants begin acting more aggressively on their own initiative, the risk of a deadly encounter that escalates the violence beyond Gaza will grow.
Houthi fighters fire anti-tank grenades during a military maneuver near Sanaa, Yemen, in late October.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels drum up trouble in the Red Sea
Houthi rebels appear to have opened a new front in the Israel-Hamas war, targeting maritime traffic in the Red Sea. On Sunday, they hijacked the Galaxy Leader, a Bahamas-flagged cargo ship bound for India, and took 25 hostages of varying nationalities, including Bulgarian, Filipino, Mexican, and Ukrainian. The hijackers then redirected the vessel to a port in Yemen and stated that “all ships belonging to the Israeli enemy or that deal with it will become legitimate targets.”
The Galaxy Leader is registered to a British company partly owned by Ray Car Carriers, a firm founded by Abraham Ungar, reportedly one of Israel’s wealthiest men. The ship was leased to a Japanese company, and no Israelis were on board at the time of the hijacking. Another vessel linked with Ungar was hit by an explosion in 2021 in the Gulf of Oman, which Israeli media attributed to Iran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office condemned the seizure of the ship as an "Iranian act of terror" while the Israeli military called it a "very grave incident of global consequence." The concern is that this attack will expand the Israel-Hamas war to a regional conflict that impacts not just Israel, but Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states that form part of a Saudi-led coalition that has been battling the Houthis in support of the elected government of Yemen since 2015.
Prior to this incident, the Houthis were already conducting terrorist operations in the Red Sea. In December 2022, a Saudi-led coalition claimed the Houthis were using mines and explosive boats to disrupt maritime traffic, and in January 2023 the Houthis hijacked a UAE-flagged vessel off the coast of Yemen.
While fighting in Yemen subsided in 2023, the Israel-Hamas war provided a flashpoint for new engagement by the Iranian-backed Houthis, who announced their entry into the conflict a few weeks ago via a slickly produced music video. Since then, they have launched six aerial attacks against Israel and shot down a US drone over the Red Sea. Last week, American forces downed a drone emanating from Yemen that the US says was targeting the SS Thomas Hudner, a naval destroyer sailing in the area.
So now, it seems, the Houthis are taking that show on their road — and onto the water.
The war in Yemen
Amid the ongoing civil war, the people of Yemen face a multitude of difficulties every day, from food shortages and crumbling infrastructure to COVID and inflation. The UN estimates that the total death toll so far will hit 377,000 by the end of the year.
How did Yemen, a beautiful country on the Red Sea known for its coffee and honey, become a proxy war for regional powers and international actors?
Ian Bremmer explains the complicated history of the conflict in Yemen. Demonstrations during 2011’s Arab Spring led Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations to meddle with Yemen’s politics, while Iran later threw its support behind the Houthis, a local Shia Muslim movement.
After 7 years of war, both Saudi Arabia and Iran continue to use Yemen as a violent playground with civilians bearing the brunt of their actions.
Watch the GZERO World episode: Caught in the crossfire: Yemen’s forgotten war