As of: January 22, 2024, 1:53 p.m
By: Fabian Hartmann
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The Houthis want to use Iranian weapons to increase their attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea.
This emerges from US intelligence information.
Sanaa - According to recent intelligence information from the USA and other Western countries, Yemen's Houthi rebels want to expand their military equipment with additional weapons from Tehran.
It is believed the Iran-aligned militant group will use the guns to expand its attacks on international merchant ships in the Red Sea.
And that it risks a major conflict in the Middle East.
US officials had been analyzing information about the rebels' plans for several weeks.
They showed that the Houthis want to acquire additional weapons that can be used to fire on cargo ships.
This emerges from a report available to the
Politico
portal and a US official familiar with the matter.
According to the report, it can be assumed that the group will attempt to attack Western forces in the region.
It is still unclear to what extent the recent US air strikes on rebel positions in Yemen have changed their attack posture.
Biden announces further attacks on Houthi positions – missing US soldiers declared dead
The latest developments in the Red Sea conflict come just days after US President Joe Biden announced further air strikes on rebel positions.
The aim of the US armed forces is therefore to weaken the Houthis' military situation and break their will.
At the same time, however, the US President admitted that the latest US air strikes had not been able to stop the Houthi attacks.
“Are they stopping the Houthis?
No.
Will they continue?
Yes,” Biden said when asked by reporters.
Today, US forces declared dead two elite soldiers who disappeared from Iran during a raid targeting arms supplies for Houthi militias.
The operation took place on the night of January 11th off the coast of Somalia, as
n-tv
reports, citing the US regional command Central Command (Centcom).
According to the information, the soldiers confiscated Iranian missile components on board the ship.
These were intended for the Houthi militias in Yemen.
According to Centcom, these included propulsion stages, guidance systems and warheads for medium-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
After the two members of the Navy Seals special unit could not be found after an extensive ten-day search, their status has now been changed to “deceased”.
The US Marines were supported by Japanese and Spanish forces in the search for the two missing soldiers.
Houthi attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea possible with military help from Iran
Since October 19, there have been regular attacks by Houthi rebels on international merchant ships off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.
Only on Friday night (January 19th) did they declare that they had attacked the tanker “Chem Range” in the Gulf of Aden with missiles.
These hit the ship several times.
US forces denied this a little later - according to them, the Houthis fired at the tanker, but missed it.
The Houthi militias are part of the self-proclaimed “Axis of Resistance” against Israel, which is at war with Hamas in Gaza.
Along with Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Yemeni Houthis are one of several proxy groups in the Middle East.
They are supported militarily in their war actions in the form of arms deliveries from Iran.
New arms deliveries from Tehran could replace the guns that the Houthi rebels have lost in the half dozen rounds of attacks by the US and its allies since they began attacking rebel positions on January 11th.
“The arms shipments from Iran are a sign that Tehran is playing a direct role in fueling the Red Sea crisis,” a U.S. official and a U.S. Department of Defense official said, according to
Politico
.
To protect their identity, they remained anonymous.
The Central Intelligence Agency, meanwhile, declined to comment.
Biden: Houthi attacks bring US and Iran closer to direct conflict
From the perspective of some experts, Iran could be trying to use the current unrest in Yemen to their advantage by supplying arms to the Houthis.
According to them, Iran's ultimate goal could be to drive US forces from their positions in the Middle East.
US soldiers on a mission in the Red Sea © IMAGO/US CENTRAL COMMAND
Further attacks by the Houthis could drag the USA deeper into the expanding Middle East conflict.
This is something that Joe Biden has so far actively tried to avoid during his term as US President.
Biden said the US was not prepared to fight directly against Iran, which has long waged a shadow war with Israel.
However, further attacks by the Houthis, particularly those on Western troops, would bring Washington and Tehran closer to direct conflict.
Israel also reports attacks by the Houthi rebels from Yemen
The Israeli Army (IDF) also said on Thursday (January 18) that it had fired an interceptor missile at a "suspicious" target heading into Israeli airspace from the Red Sea.
It is not clear what the specific target of the object that was shot down was.
But still, the IDF stressed that the incident follows attempts by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis to fire ballistic missiles and drones at Israel's southernmost city of Eilat since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on international merchant ships in the Red Sea are also causing global supply chains to be delayed.
Because more and more shipping companies are currently redirecting their ships around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal, which means that there is a delay of weeks.
(Fabian Hartmann)