Four submarine cables were damaged in the Red Sea, according to a Hong Kong operator. Yemeni rebels had already threatened to attack this infrastructure.
Yemen is in a strategic position, because Internet lines that connect entire continents – and not just countries – pass nearby. At the beginning of February, several Yemeni telecoms companies expressed concern about the threat of sabotage of the submarine cables. The information minister of Yemen's legitimate government also told the Guardian that the Houthis were responsible for the damage to the cables.