The Houthi terrorists of Yemen published an ominous video on Monday showing a ship on fire, captioned simply with the word “soon.”
Multiple media outlets confirming the publication of the video suggested that it could be a preview for the resumption of maritime terrorist in the Red Sea, which the Houthis engaged in for nearly two years in defense of Iran and the fellow jihadist terror organization Hamas. The Houthis, which consider themselves falsely to be the government of Yemen, “declared war” on Israel following the gruesome Hamas attack on the country on October 7, 2023. Both Hamas, a primarily Sunni terrorist organization, and the Houthis, a Shiite terrorist gang, rely heavily on financing and political support from Iran to operate.
The timing of the video, and another showing a specific commercial ship attack, follows President Donald Trump moving naval assets to the Middle East in response to the deadly repression of peaceful protests that began in Iran in December. The military confirmed on Monday that a U.S. Navy strike group traveled west in the Indian Ocean and arrived in territory controlled by U.S. Central Command. Trump himself told reporters on Thursday that a “big flotilla” and an “armada” of American naval assets was moving towards Iran in the event that Washington had to act to stop the massacre of Iranian protesters. Estimates of the death toll as a result of Tehran’s repression of the protests range from 5,000 to 35,000 at press time.
Following Trump’s confirmation of action, the Iranian regime has repeatedly threatened to go to war with the United States, erecting a massive billboard in Tehran this weekend showing images of destroyed fighter jets on an aircraft carrier. Iranian terror proxies and allies have also escalated their belligerent language towards America in the past week.
The Houthis, based in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, engaged in over 100 attacks on random ships in the Red Sea, allegedly as part of a campaign to “blockade” the Israeli economy. Many of the ships had no obvious connection to Israel or any of Yemen’s enemies, however, and on multiple instances the Houthis bombed ships linked to allies such as Iran, China, or Russia. The campaign ended this summer after negotiations with President Donald Trump preceded by extensive American military activity to limit the Houthis’ terrorist reach.
In addition to the “soon” video, which did not offer any specifics on the identity of the ship involved or when the footage was from, Houthi media also shared a longer video describing and showing alleged “never-before-seen” footage of another Houthi terror attack on a British ship, the Marlin Luanda, an oil tanker the Houthis attacked in 2024.
According to the Iran- and Hezbollah-friendly Al Mayadeen network, the video shared is intended to highlight the terrorist abilities of the Houthis, apparently to scare away the U.S. military.
The extremely destructive Houthi terror campaign against random ships in the Red Sea and close to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that wraps around Yemen resulted in attacks on over 100 ships before the Trump administration’s actions allowed regular shipping travel to resume in the area.
Prior to attacks on the Houthis and their ultimate announcement that they would no longer bomb commercial ships unaffiliated with Israel, former President Joe Biden attempted to confront the threat by establishing an international coalition under a plan called “Operation Prosperity Guardian.” The operation, the Biden administration claimed, attracted support from over 20 countries, but many countries involved chose to remain anonymous, while others offered no ships or other resources to actively support an end to terrorism in the region. “Operation Prosperity Guardian” ultimately made little difference in Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea.
Trump announced in May that the terrorist organization had agreed to end its maritime terrorist campaign.
“They have capitulated, but more importantly, we will take their own word. They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that’s the purpose of what we were doing,” Trump said at the time.
The Houthis claimed that, rather than ending their war on Israel, they were entering a new phase, and that the White House had indicated it would limit its pervasive strike campaign against Houthi targets if they stopped bombing ships.
“This agreement was for halting U.S. aggression against Yemen in exchange for halting attacks on U.S. ships,” a Houthi spokesman claimed.
The global shipping giant Maersk, which had rerouted its ships across the Cape of Good Hope in Africa to avoid the Houthi threat near Yemen, announced in December that one of its ships had navigated the Red Sea peacefully for the first time since the Houthi terror campaign began after October 7.
“The first step is this initial sailing, followed by a limited number of additional trans-Suez sailings. However, there are no planned sailings currently,” Maersk said at the time, indicating that the shipping industry had confidence that the conflict had subsided.
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