U.S. Navy Sinks Several Houthi Militant Boats in Red Sea After Container Ship Attack

The U.S. Navy sank three ships tied to the Yemen-based Houthi militant group after it targeted a Maersk container ship in the Red Sea this week, leading the massive shipping company to pause all operations in the region for two days.

Helicopters aboard the U.S.S. Eisenhower were dispatched following emergency calls from the Maersk ship. U.S. military craft “returned fire in self-defense, sinking three of the four small boats, and killing the crews,” the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in an official statement following the incident, noting that the sole surviving boat “fled the area.” Sources at Yemen’s Hodeida port told French news outlet AFP that at least ten Houthi militants were killed in the exchange.

The Maersk ship, which had also been targeted on Saturday by Houthi missiles, remained “reportedly seaworthy,” with “no reported injuries,” CENTCOM added, marking the twenty-third “illegal attack by the Houthis on international shipping” since mid November.

The Iranian-backed Houthi group began striking shipping containers following the Hamas invasion of Israel as a means of destabilizing the region and putting pressure on the Jewish State embroiled in its ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. Many of the attacks have occurred near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the narrows separating the Arabian Peninsula from the continent of Africa bound for the Suez Canal, which comprises 12 percent of global trade.

So far, the militants have succeeded in deterring dozens of shipping vessels away from the Suez Canal, and forced companies to reroute trade around the southern tip of Africa, adding as much as ten days and over 3,000 nautical miles onto the journey.

In mid December, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the creation of a multinational security initiative to curb Houthi activities in the region, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian.

“Operation Prosperity Guardian is bringing together multiple countries to include the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain to jointly address security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with the goal of ensuring freedom of navigation for all countries and bolstering regional security and prosperity.”

The latest incident led British foreign secretary David Cameron to warn Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian to rein in the Houthis. “I made clear that Iran shares responsibility for preventing these attacks, given their long-standing support to the Houthis,” Cameron, a former British prime minister, wrote on X, adding that Houthis “threaten innocent lives and the global economy.”

In late December a group of more than 40 prominent conservatives known as Advancing American Freedom (AAF) pushed the White House to redesignate the Houthis a terrorist group. The Trump administration labeled the Yemeni group, which controls much of the northern parts of the country, a terrorist organization in January 2021. The Biden administration reversed that decision shortly after taking office.

AAF executive director Paul Teller said the removal of the Houthis’ terrorist designation was a grave error. “Removing the Houthis from the list of terrorist organizations was one of the first mistakes of this administration,” Teller said at the time.

“As the Middle East grows more unstable after Hamas’s unprovoked attack in Israel, the Houthis have added to the chaos, and there is no diplomacy that will dissuade them. The United States must return to a posture of clear-headed realism and treat our enemies as they deserve to be treated.”

Ahead of Christmas celebrations in New York City, pro-Palestinian protesters applauded the group: “Yemen, Yemen, make us proud! Turn another ship around!”