Bab-el-Mandeb

The government of Somalia on Thursday announced Israeli ships are no longer allowed to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital passage that links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that a long-term solution to the escalating Strait of Hormuz crisis would require rerouting oil and gas pipelines westward across Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea and Mediterranean, bypassing what he described as Iran’s “geographic choke point,” as Tehran moves to impose tolls on ships transiting the vital waterway and restrict passage through the corridor.

Shipping giant Maersk said on Tuesday that it was close to resuming shipping through the Suez Canal almost two years after terrorist attacks from the Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen forced many transport companies to avoid the route through the Red Sea that leads to the canal.

The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen took responsibility on Tuesday for attacking the container ship Maersk Sentosa in the Arabian Sea.

The leader of the Iran-backed Houthis of Yemen says the terror campaign against Red Sea shipping is “continuing, escalating, and effective.”

The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen damaged a British-registered cargo vessel badly enough to make the crew abandon the ship.

Attack may be the first serious missile damage inflicted on a merchant ship by the Iran-backed, Shiite Muslim Houthi Rebels.

One of the UK’s largest retailers warns of stock shortages this year as strikes in Red Sea delay arrivals and send shipping prices spiralling. 

A “possible explosion” struck a key shipping lane off Yemen Monday, the latest incident in the vital waterway threatened by Huthi rebels.

A large container ship was struck by a projectile fired from Yemen, causing some cargo to fall overboard and setting a fire on the ship.