The “defense minister” of the Yemeni terrorist organization Ansar Allah, commonly known as the Houthis, celebrated in remarks on Sunday that civilized nations such as America, Israel, and Britain have lost their “influence on international waters.”
Major General Mohammed al-Atifi, speaking at a “graduation” event for Houthi terror operatives, was celebrating the results of a months-long campaign by the terrorists to disrupt global commercial shipping in and around the Red Sea. The Houthis declared war on the state of Israel in October in solidarity with the Sunni terrorist organization Hamas, which had executed an unprecedented mass murder of Israeli civilians that month during a siege that also included acts of torture, gang rape, the abduction of over 200 people, and widespread abuse and killing of children, including babies.
The Houthis are a Shiite terrorist organization but share with Hamas funding and political support from Iran, as well as a virulent hatred of Jews. The official Houthi slogan is “Allahu akbar, death to the United States, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory for Islam.” They control most of Yemen, including the capital, Sana’a, while the legitimate government of Yemen languishes in the southern city of Aden.
The Houthi war against Israel has largely consisted of attacks on ships transiting around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait near Yemen. While Houthi leaders claim they are only targeting ships with ties to Israel – and expanded those attacks to American and British ships following strikes on terror targets in Yemen – the documented Houthi attacks in the region have appeared random. The Houthis have not only targeted ships from unrelated nations but also struck against ships carrying Russian cargo, Chinese crews, and heading to Iran, all nations the terrorists maintain friendly ties with.
The attacks have significantly affected shipping costs, particularly in Europe, as ships are forced to avoid the Red Sea altogether and reroute around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. A survey published by the British Chambers of Commerce found that shipping from Asia to Europe has become as much as 300 percent more expensive for some businesses.
“The United States, Britain and Israel must realize that the policies of demarcation and assertion of hegemonic influence on international waters are obsolete and no more favorable,” Atifi, the Houthi “defense chief,” said on Sunday, according to the Iranian state propaganda network PressTV. The outlet claimed that Atifi went on to claim that the Houthis were working to “properly redefine maritime security” – apparently with a definition including the risk of random Houthi bombings against commercial ships existing at all times – and that the Houthis would work to “restore the identity of the two seas,” meaning the Red and Arabian Seas.
Atifi also reaffirmed the Houthis’ promise, which the group has broken repeatedly, not to “target any ships, which are neither affiliated to the Zionist enemy [Israel] nor serving its interests.”
“Marine navigation for vessels through the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea is safe,” he concluded.
In reality, the leader of Ansar Allah, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, boasted last week that Houthi strikes on ships in the Red Sea shipping lane “are continuing, escalating, and effective” and threatened to deploy unspecified “submarine” weapons against perceived threats to the terrorists in the region.
Houthi terrorists and the militaries of civilized states in the region confirmed attacks on at least five ships between February 22 and February 26. The latest, on Monday, was a ballistic missile attack on the MV Torm Thor, a Danish-owned American ship. Other attacks this week include strikes on two American and two British ships, the most severe of the four the attack on the MV Rubymar. The Rubymar is expected to sink but has anchored and is “slowly taking on water,” according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) on Friday.
The Houthis have executed at least 45 attacks on ships in the region since October.
On Monday, a report in the Israeli news outlet Globes claimed that the Houthis also successfully destroyed undersea communications cables linking Saudi Arabia and Djibouti. The outlet did not specify when the Houthis had allegedly committed the act or how they had executed it but claimed that the AAE-1, Seacom, Europe India Gateway (EIG), and TGN systems were all damaged.
The Houthis, meanwhile, accused American and British forces of killing a civilian during strikes against their targets within Yemen, the first time they had claimed a civilian casualty in Anglo-American airstrikes. The airstrikes, an attempt to limit the Houthi ability to shoot missiles at maritime traffic, have apparently prompted the terrorists to restructure their assets on the ground. The outlet Bloomberg reported on Monday that the Houthis “have fortified mountain hideouts for more secure and effective missile launches,” and to avoid losing military assets to strikes.
“These remote and rugged locations are being used to hide stockpiles of missiles, while mountainous heights of over 6,500 feet (nearly 2,000 meters) allow for the targeting of ships further out to sea,” Bloomberg reported.
The Houthis have vowed that they will continue disrupting global shipping unless Israel stops its self-defense operations against Hamas.
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