Red Sea

Shipping giant Maersk announced on Friday that one of its ships successfully navigated the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait for the first time in almost two years, potentially signaling a return to using the cost-effective trade route after the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen shut it down with missile and drone attacks.

A ship caught fire Saturday in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen after being struck by a projectile, the British military said.

Yemen Houthi rebels claimed responsibility early on Wednesday, underlining the range of their weaponry and their campaign targeting shipping.

The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen on Tuesday threatened to impose “sanctions” against 13 American oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Marathon Petroleum.

Iran-backed Houthi insurgents in Yemen raided U.N. offices on Sunday, taking at least 11 U.N. employees prisoner, then launched a missile at an Israeli-owned oil tanker in the Red Sea on Monday. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had killed much of the Houthis’ senior leadership, including their “prime minister” Ahmed al-Rahawi, in an airstrike on Thursday.

A smuggling ship loaded with migrants sank in bad weather off the coast of southern Yemen on Sunday, killing at least 68 of its passengers. Another 74 are still missing, while only 12 victims had been recovered by rescue teams as of Monday.

The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen claimed on Thursday that “a number of the ship’s crew” from the cargo ship Eternity C have been kidnapped and are being held in a “safe location” after Houthi drones and grenades destroyed the ship on Tuesday.

Germany stated a Chinese warship, unprovoked and without warning, fired a laser weapon at an aircraft on a European Union military mission. 

The Houthi insurgents of Yemen, possibly the last combat-effective Iranian proxy force in the Middle East, are threatening to continue missile attacks against Israel after a devastating Israeli airstrike on the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah.

The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen declared a “maritime blockade” of Israel’s Haifa port on Monday – a blockade they presumably intend to enforce with missile and drone attacks on shipping.

The Houthi insurgents of Yemen confirmed they have reached an agreement with the U.S. to “pause” their attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, in exchange for a pause in U.S. airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen.

An F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jet has been reported to be lost at sea after it fell overboard while being “actively under tow in the hang bay” on the USS Harry S. Truman. In a press release from the Office

U.S. airstrikes hit the Ras Isa oil port held by Yemen’s Houthi terrorists early Friday morning, reportedly killing 38 people and wounding 102 others, in one of the deadliest attacks of Washington’s renewed campaign against the Iran-backed group.

The U.S. was wrong to neuter European power and create vassal states in the 1950s, Vice President JD Vance has said.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday that Yemen’s west coast is “on the verge of a catastrophe” in which “thousands will die” from malnutrition.

President Donald Trump urged Iran to stop offering financial and political aid to Yemen’s Ansarullah terrorist organization on Wednesday or face the wrath of the U.S. military, predicting that, with or without Iranian help, the Houthis “will be completely annihilated!”

The leader of Ansarullah, the jihadist terror organization commonly known as the Houthis, announced a new campaign “against American and Israeli oppression” in an unhinged speech on Sunday, threatening to “escalate” against American military assets in the Middle East.

The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen issued a warning to international shipping companies on Wednesday that they intend to resume missile and drone attacks against “any Israeli vessel” passing through the Red Sea. The Houthis suspended their attacks in January after Israel announced a ceasefire in Gaza.

The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman was involved in a collision at sea Wednesday night, according to reports.

Danish shipping giant Maersk posted an update on the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden situation on Friday that said the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Bab-el-Mandeb strait are still too dangerous for commercial vessels, despite promises by the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen to discontinue their attacks.

The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen said on Sunday they will begin limiting their wanton attacks on civilian ships in the Red Sea to Israeli vessels, but added they could resume attacking ships from other countries if the Gaza ceasefire agreement does not hold.

Shipping giants Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd told reporters on Thursday they are not yet prepared to return to the Red Sea shipping lanes after the peace deal announced between Israel and Hamas.

Saudi Arabia’s Neom project was meant to be the city of the future, the crowning achievement of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s “Saudi Vision 2030” plan to diversify the national economy away from oil. Unfortunately, the construction site for the city of the future has been plagued by complaints of gang rape, drinking, drugs, and attempted suicide by the 100,000 workers assembled there.

The USS Gettysburg guided missile cruiser mistakenly shot down an American fighter jet in the early morning hours of Sunday in what United States Central Command called “an apparent case of friendly fire.”

U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking said on Thursday that leaders of the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen have decided to keep lower profiles following the devastation of Iran’s other regional proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, at the hands of Israel, followed by the overthrow of Iran’s client Bashar Assad in Syria by a Sunni Islamist insurgency.

Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen seizing the car carrier MV Galaxy Leader and taking its crew hostage.

Iranian state media claimed this week that Saudi Arabia wishes to “organize joint exercises in the Red Sea.” Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry curtly stated on Wednesday that no such exercises are currently being planned.

U.S. Navy warships shot down a barrage of Houthi terrorist cruise missiles and drones launched Friday from Yemen at the shipping lanes of the Red Sea.

The de jure leader of Yemen, President Rashad Mohammed al-Alimi of the “Presidential Leadership Council,” reproached the United Nations and greater international community for abandoning his administration in its decade-old civil war against Iran-backed Houthi terrorists in his address to the General Assembly on Monday.

Ali Akbar Ahmadian, secretary-general of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) of Iran, on Wednesday called for the China-dominated BRICS economic group to create “a new security structure in the international arena to help the order and security of the future world.”

Maersk said that disruptions to global shipping that attacks from the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen have caused are worsening. 

The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen attacked three more commercial vessels in the Red Sea with drones and ballistic missiles.

The Houthis published a video they claimed showed their members boarding the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion and planting bombs.

The Pentagon said on Tuesday that the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion, abandoned in the Red Sea after a pirate attack by the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen last week, appears to be leaking oil — possibly the prelude to a much-feared environmental catastrophe.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield condemned the Houthis for creating an ecological disaster by attacking an oil tanker.

The Greek-flagged oil tanker MV Sounion was left adrift and burning in the Red Sea after attacks from the Houthi terrorists of Yemen.