After weeks spent harassing commercial vessels in the Red Sea with apparent impunity, four vessels finally paid the price on Saturday for participating in the Iran-backed Houthi campaign of terror against the West.
According to reports, a U.S. destroyer that was patrolling in the Red Sea responded to reports that a container vessel had been struck by a missile. En route, it detected two more cruise missiles in flight that were heading for U.S. naval vessels and intercepted them. Later, when the Houthis again attacked the container ship and attempted to board it, and additionally fired at U.S. vessels who attempted to intervene, the Navy responded with lethal force.
The Houthis, a rebel group that is funded and backed by Iran and is seeking to wrest control of war-torn Yemen from the Saudi-backed Yemeni government, have been intimidating commercial vessels in the Red Sea since the outbreak of hostilities between Hamas terrorists and Israel on October 7th. Numerous commercial vessels have been intercepted or forced to return, and until Saturday international response was largely tepid and ineffective.
The Biden White House attempted to assemble an international coalition to respond to the attacks and restore order to the Red Sea, but was only able to find 9 coalition members. The government’s failure to effectively protect U.S. commercial interests in the area from the Houthis has drawn increasing criticism from both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill.
U.S. Central Command says that the Navy was initially responding to reports that the Danish container ship Maersk Hangzhou had been struck by a cruise missile when they detected inbound cruise missiles heading for the USS Gravely and the USS Laboon, apparently from Yemen. Those missiles were shot down.
Later, the Maersk Hangzhou issued another distress call, leading U.S. Navy ships to rush to the area, whereupon they found Houthi vessels “within 20 meters” of the Maersk Hangzhou. Houthi rebels were reportedly engaged in a firefight with the Maersk Hangzhou’s private security, which was attempting to prevent them from boarding the ship.
U.S. forces dispatched helicopters from the USS Eisenhower and Gravely, which attempted to hail the Houthi boats over loudspeakers. The Houthi boats responded by firing upon the helicopters, whereupon the helicopters returned fire, sinking three of the boats and killing all Houthi crew on board. The U.S. Navy says this was the 23rd Houthi attack on commercial vessels since October 7th.
The Houthis were designated as a terror organization by former president Donald Trump near the end of his term, a designation that was removed by President Joe Biden as part of his arms deal with Iran. The Biden administration has recently redesignated the Houthis as a terror organization in response to the shipping attacks.