Dems rip Biden for launching Houthi strikes without congressional approval

[seminole97]

Unmanned Houthi submarines pose new threat to US warships in Red Sea​

The Iran-backed group attacked with one for the first time on Sunday.

The U.S. conducted what it called self-defense strikes on five targets in the Houthi-controlled area of Yemen after the Houthis employed an unmanned submarine for the first time since attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden began, the Pentagon said.

The submarine, an unmanned underwater vessel, or UUV, shows advancing Houthi capability and a shifting strategy, ABC News national security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy, a former Pentagon official and CIA agent, said.

"Unmanned surface and subsurface vessels are likely more difficult to detect and destroy than aerial drones and anti-ship missiles. The Houthis are not likely capable of manufacturing these weapons on their own, so they are probably coming from Iran," Mulroy said.

In addition to the unmanned submarine hit Sunday, the U.S.military said it struck an unmanned vessel that moves on the surface, as well as anti-ship cruise missiles which have made up the bulk of U.S. targets in the Houthi arsenal.

The Houthis, which the U.S. designates a global terrorist group with Iran's backing, operate out of parts of Yemen they control after a cease-fire in the Yemeni civil war. The International Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, an arm of the Iranian regime's military forces that coordinates operations outside Iran's borders, supports the Houthis and other armed groups with weapons and financing, the U.S. says.

"The Houthis and the IRGC are adjusting their strategy, apparently because they haven't been successful in striking a U.S. naval vessel," Mulroy said. The Houthis have targeted American ships to no avail, while the U.S. has been increasing defensive strikes since a separate militia group, also backed by Iran, struck the U.S. base in Jordan and killed three servicemembers.

"If one or more of these weapons get through and kill U.S. sailors, Iran should expect to be held directly responsible," said Mulroy.

The unmanned weapons systems are an acute threat, Mulroy said, since they could "overwhelm the ship's defenses" by attacking from multiple dimensions, a so-called "swarm attack."

The U.S. Coast Guard said it intercepted a cache of weapons aboard a ship heading from Iran to Houthi-controlled Yemen on Jan. 15. Among military equipment intercepted were components for the unmanned vessels, the U.S. said – the sort of vessels hit in two of Sunday's U.S. strikes.

As a part of U.S. preemptive offensives to Houthi aggression, a U.S. official told ABC News the U.S. conducted a cyberattack against an Iranian spy vessel, the MV Behshad, which has cruised the Red Sea and passed targeting information to the Houthis. The cyberattack was a part of the U.S. promised multi-tiered response in the days after the January 28 militia attack in Jordan.

The Houthis on Monday said they conducted five strikes in the past 24 hours. Two targeted American ships in the Gulf of Aden and another targeted and sunk a British ship, the Houthis said in a statement.

 

[EasyHawk]

😢

 

[seminole97]

😢

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"Far left"?!?

The dude's name is Khalid Turaani.

Does someone need help figuring out why he wants to punish Biden for supporting Israel in their war?

 

[tumorboy]

😢

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These are the same idiots that voted for Jill Stein. They’ll probably vote for Cornel West this time around.

 

[seminole97]

These are the same idiots that voted for Jill Stein. They’ll probably vote for Cornel West this time around.

You honest to god think that man is “left wing”?

You don’t think he’s voting on purely ethnic lines?

 

[seminole97]

DUBAI/ADEN/LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis claimed responsibility for an attack on a UK-owned cargo ship and a drone assault on an American destroyer on Thursday, and they targeted Israel’s port and resort city of Eilat with ballistic missiles and drones.

The statement by a Houthi representative on social media site X came shortly after the group’s leader said it was ramping up attacks on ships in the Red Sea and other waters – including with new “submarine weapons” -to mirror Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip.

Houthi militants have launched repeated drone and missile strikes in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden since November in support of Palestinians, as the Israel-Hamas war continues and the Gaza death toll reaches almost 30,000.

“Operations in the Red and Arabian Seas, Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden are continuing, escalating, and effective,” Abdul Malik al-Houthi added in a televised speech. He gave no details of the submarine weapons.

The group’s strikes are disrupting the vital Suez Canal trade shortcut that accounts for about 12% of global maritime traffic, and forcing firms to take a longer, more expensive route around Africa.

The Houthis on Thursday sent shippers and insurers formal notice of what they termed a ban on vessels linked to Israel, the U.S. and Britain from sailing in surrounding seas, seeking to reinforce their military campaign.

The Houthis’ communication, the first to the shipping industry outlining a ban, came in the form of two notices from the Houthis’ newly dubbed Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center sent to shipping insurers and firms. The aim is to force sailing companies to collaborate with the Houthis to guarantee the safety of their ships,

Ships owned by individuals or entities in Israel, the U.S. and U.K. or sailing under their flags are banned from the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea, Thursday’s notices said.

“The Humanitarian Operations Center was established in Sanaa to coordinate the safe and peaceful passage of ships and vessels that have no connection to Israel,” a senior Houthi official told Reuters on Thursday.

The months of attacks have upset global trade and reset shipping rates at a higher level. Insurance sources on Thursday said there was no change in rates since the issuance of the advisories because marine underwriters had already restricted coverage availability or increased rates.

“In terms or marine war insurance availability and pricing, we don’t see a significant effect from the Houthi group’s recent announcement since it echoed similar announcements from last year to target Israel, U.S. and UK-linked vessels,” Marcos Alvarez, managing director, global insurance ratings, Morningstar DBRS, told Reuters.

Militant leader al-Houthi said retaliatory strikes by the U.S.-British coalition have failed to stop its campaign.

Earlier on Thursday, two missiles set ablaze a ship some 70 nautical miles southeast of Aden, Yemen, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said. The vessel and crew were reported safe and are proceeding to the next port of call, it said in a later update.

That UK-owned, Palau-flagged ship, the Islander, was en route to Egypt from Thailand, according to British maritime security firm Ambrey and ship tracking data.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said in a social media post that the U.S. shot down six Houthi drones in the Red Sea after they were identified as an imminent threat to U.S. and allied warships.

No ships have been sunk nor crew killed during the Houthi campaign. However there are concerns about the fate of the UK-registered Rubymar cargo vessel, which was struck on Feb. 18 and its crew evacuated.

The Houthis said the Rubymar was at risk of sinking but a U.S. defense official said it remained afloat.

Rubymar is “sitting lower still in the water,” Ambrey said. A salvage attempt was aborted and a navigation warning to nearby ships was in place, the firm said. Other options are under consideration, the vessel’s security company ISS-SAPU said.

 

[seminole97]

CNN
The Biden administration is struggling to stop the ongoing attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis against ships in the Red Sea and the group is continuing to fortify its weapons stockpile inside Yemen, even though the US has carried out significant strikes on the group in recent weeks, US officials told CNN.

“We know that the Houthis maintain a large arsenal,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said on Thursday, hours after the Houthis hit yet another cargo vessel in the Gulf of Aden with ballistic missiles. “They are very capable, they have sophisticated weapons, and that’s because they continue to get them from Iran.”

US officials have been grappling with how to increase the pressure on the Houthis, with some inside the administration arguing that the use of force alone is not working. It is also extremely expensive and impractical, some officials note, to keep firing multimillion-dollar missiles at cheap Houthi drones and missiles.

Outside the administration, some former officials argue the administration has taken too conservative of an approach altogether and needs to focus on targeting Houthi leaders rather than their weapon stocks.

The US strategy for confronting the Houthis has shifted since the attacks began in October insofar as US Central Command has begun regularly striking Houthi weaponry inside Yemen pre-emptively, when the US can see systems being prepared to launch.

But multiple officials told CNN that the US still does not have “a denominator” that would allow them to assess the percentage of Houthi equipment they have actually destroyed, and it is not clear whether the US will shift its military approach further.

“They continue to surprise us,” said one senior defense official, referring to the Houthis. “We just don’t have a good idea of what they still have.”

Houthis digging in​

While the US has hit dozens of Houthi targets inside Yemen since January—including command and control nodes and weapons storage facilities—the Houthis are in turn digging in, officials said, building tunnels near Yemen’s western coast and more regularly staying underground.

Some inside the administration say it is a positive sign that the Houthis appear to be spending more time underground between attacks—they are being forced to hide, which suggests that the military strikes are having at least a psychological impact.

The Houthis are also extremely concerned about their senior leadership being targeted in a strike and have become increasingly paranoid, two officials said.

For some former US officials who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity, the fact that the US has not yet hit Houthi leadership and has instead focused on destroying weapons and equipment is a large part of why the US has failed to meaningfully deter the group.

“The US campaign against the Houthis appears to bear the hallmarks of many of these highly circumscribed, scrubbed campaigns of the past where we seek to avoid causing them actual pain,” said one former US military official.

Former officials point to the apparent success the administration has had in deterring Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria by striking their leaders. After these militants killed three Americans in Jordan in January, the US carried out a strike inside Baghdad on February 7 that killed two key militia commanders. The attacks have since stopped entirely, the Pentagon has said. Officials also believe Iran instructed the groups to back off the attacks following the US strikes.

The issue is becoming more acute, especially given the notable increase in Houthi attacks over the last two days. The Houthis’ deployment for the first-time last week of an unmanned underwater drone also alarmed US officials.

That drone was ultimately destroyed by US forces. But unmanned surface and subsurface vessels are “more of an unknown threat” that could be “extremely lethal,” Rear Admiral Marc Miguez, the commander of Carrier Strike Group 2, told CNN last week. He said the US has “very little fidelity as to all the stockpiles the Houthis have” of those kinds of weapons.

It’s also unclear whether the Biden administration could meaningfully ramp up its military action against Houthi targets, in particular to target Houthi leaders inside of Yemen, without first grappling with some of the open questions around the legality of the campaign. Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill have questioned whether the Biden administration would need authorization from Congress to carry on the campaign past a 60-day limit imposed by the 1973 War Powers Resolution. Theoretically, that 60-day deadline could expire March 12, two months after the first major strikes the administration carried out inside of Yemen itself.

Houthi attacks could stop if Gaza war ends, some officials believe​

The US, some argue, now needs to shift to a stronger international pressure campaign and better underscore how the attacks are impeding humanitarian aid shipments to vulnerable populations—including the people of Yemen.

The Houthis are very concerned with their domestic public image, officials said, and have tried to cast themselves as scrappy underdogs fighting for the betterment of Palestinian lives and an end to Israel’s war in Gaza. While the Houthis are not very popular in the areas of Yemen they control, the Palestinian cause itself is popular amongst Yemenis, officials noted.

At the same time, the Houthis also crave international legitimacy, officials said, and want to be recognized as the official Yemeni government. They have fought for that for years as part of a civil war against a Saudi coalition that backs Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

Some senior officials inside the administration therefore believe that the Houthis would keep their word and stop their attacks if Israel ended its war in Gaza, something some former officials privately say is wishful thinking.

Publicly, the administration has repeatedly downplayed the Houthis’ claims that they are attacking ships as a way to pressure Israel into a ceasefire, noting that most of the targets have no ties at all to Israel or its allies.

Privately, however, some senior officials concede it is entirely possible the Houthis will stop if Israel does—and they point to the fact that the Houthi attacks largely subsided in November during a 7-day pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Still, officials say they cannot wait to see whether a ceasefire materializes to respond to the Houthis’ aggression. The State Department and Pentagon have therefore been working to turn both ordinary Yemenis and the international community further against them and began more forcefully challenging the militants’ narrative this week.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller and the Pentagon’s Singh both highlighted a Houthi attack on a ship that was bringing corn and other food supplies to the Yemeni people in Aden, and Singh noted that another ship hit by a missile and currently sinking in the Red Sea was carrying fertilizer and now poses a significant environmental risk to the region.

Officials told CNN on Friday that the sinking ship, the Rubymar, has now left an 18-mile oil slick in the area. The Belize-flagged, UK-registered, Lebanese-owned vessel was carrying 41,000 tons of fertilizer when it was struck on Monday, the officials said.

“The Houthis are creating an environmental hazard right in their own backyard,” Singh said on Thursday. “They’re saying that they’re conducting these attacks against ships that are connected to Israel. These are ships that are literally bringing goods, services, aid to their own people, and they’re creating their own international problem.”

One key aspect of this international pressure campaign is support from the US’ Arab allies. The US has managed to get some key regional partners on board with the operation to defend commercial shipping in the Red Sea, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian, including Oman and Bahrain.

But officials say more needs to be done to convey to the Houthis that they are becoming a pariah on the global stage. Even Iran, which has long backed the Houthis but does not have perfect command and control over them, has become increasingly concerned about the rebels’ tactics, CNN previously reported.

Still, there are no signs yet that Iran is actively withholding support from the Houthis, officials said. The US has continued to interdict Iranian weapons shipments to Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, including as recently as earlier this month.

 

[THE_DEVIL]

....and now the village idiot chimes in.

Greene denounces Yemen strikes, pointing to Biden’s past criticism of Trump​

Greene denounces Yemen strikes, pointing to Biden’s past criticism of Trump

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) denounced U.S. airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen on Thursday, calling the Biden administration “insanely out of control.” The joint U.S.-U.K. airstrikes hit a…

thehill.com

The Cramer Effect has now been deployed

 

[seminole97]

The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center, which monitors Middle East waterways, posted on X around 0700 ET that it had received a report of a commercial vessel attack about 15 nautical miles west of Al-Mukha, also known as Mokha, a port city in southwestern Yemen on the Red Sea coast.

"The crew took the vessel to anchor and were evacuated by military authorities. The vessel has dragged anchor and now in position 13-21.19N 042-57.64E, and is down by the stern, bows remain above waterline," UKMTO said.

 

[seminole97]

8 weeks into the campaign now:


On Wednesday we reported on the deadly Houthi missile strike on the MV True Confidence, a Liberian-owned vessel, in the Red Sea. The attack resulted in the first fatalities since the Houthi campaign against international shipping began in reaction to the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Three sailors tragically died while the rest of the crew abandoned the stricken vessel as it was on fire.

The UK embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, confirmed on X: "At least two innocent sailors have died. This was the sad but inevitable consequence of the Houthis recklessly firing missiles at international shipping. They must stop." A statement by US Central Command later increased the death toll to three.

The vessel's owners and operator had said it was drifting 50 nautical miles southwest of Aden. True Confidence Shipping and Greece-based operator Third January Maritime Ltd said in a joint statement "The vessel is drifting" and that there the ship had no current connection with any US entity. However, the Indian Navy responded and was able to rescue several crew members, captured in a dramatic video below:



Reuters has confirmed Thursday that "India's navy evacuated all 20 crew from a stricken vessel in the Red Sea on Thursday, after a Houthi attack killed three seafarers in the first civilian fatalities from the Yemeni group's campaign against the key shipping route."

The vessel's owners have contacted and expressed condolences to the families. Two of the deceased were Filipino nationals, while the third was Vietnamese.

The Indian Navy conducted a daring helicopter rescue from a small life raft in choppy waters. According to more from Reuters, "Some wounded were shown lying in the bottom of a navy lifeboat sent to assist."

"They were carried on stretchers onto the ship and were shown later with heavily bandaged limbs as they were evacuated to the Djibouti hospital," the report continued.

 

[seminole97]

US Navy Repels "Large-Scale" Houthi Attack Of 15 Suicide Drones​

On Saturday Yemen's Houthis have launched what international press reports are describing as the one of the group's largest single attacks since the operation to disrupt Red Sea shipping began last November.

The US Central Command, or CENTCOM, described in a statement that a "large-scale" Houthi attack occurred in both the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden involving over a dozen suicide drones.

Coalition naval forces shot down at least 15 drones which CENTCOM said "presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels, US Navy and coalition ships in the region."

The Houthis have long declared they are directly targeting Western coalition warships in regional waters, along with foreign commercial vessels suspected to be en route to Israeli ports.

The US military statement confirmed that "US Navy vessels and aircraft along with multiple coalition navy ships and aircraft shot down 15" of the inbound drones. "These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure.”

The biggest single wave of Houthi drones launched before that included 18 drones and three missiles, in a January 9th attack.

Friday had also witnessed one of the largest single-day attacks thus far, per an account from the Houthis:

The attack on Friday targeted the bulk carrier Propel Fortune, which continued on its way, according to the United States military's Central Command. "The missiles did not impact the vessel," the U.S. military said. "There were no injuries or damages reported."

The Houthis said Saturday they were behind the attack. Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed that along with targeting the Propel Fortune Attack, the Houthi forces also launched 37 drones targeting American warships.

Last month and this month have been particularly devastating as a UK tanker completely sunk after being struck by missiles, and another Gulf of Aden missile strike on the Barbados-flagged ship True Confidence resulted in the deaths of three crew members.

Some have argued that given the Western coalition is clearly ineffective in stopping the Houthi attacks, the only solution to the Red Sea crisis is for a ceasefire to take effect in Gaza:

The attack on the True Confidence was the first ever fatal Houthi strike on a ship. The Shia miliary group linked to Iran has vowed to keep up the attacks so long as Israel continues its war in Gaza.

 

[binsfeldcyhawk2]

The U.S. military and its allies shot down a flurry of at least 28 drones in the Red Sea fired by Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen early Saturday, the Pentagon said.

The drones were fired over an approximately four-hour period from about 4 a.m. to 8:20 a.m. local time, U.S. Central Command reported on social media.

There were no reports of commercial or naval vessels damaged in the assault, CENTCOM said.

U.S. forces, allies shoot down more than 2 dozen Houthi drones in Red Sea

There were no reports of commercial or naval vessels damaged in the assault, U.S. Central Command reported.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[binsfeldcyhawk2]

The mysterious Iranian ship accused of lining up the next Houthi targets​

Maritime experts believe the Behshad provides data to help Yemeni rebels strike vessels in Gulf of Aden
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https://www.ft.com/content/5fb8849c-b5b2-4f6f-908f-2c125159e3ce

A mysterious Iranian vessel in the Gulf of Aden faces intensifying scrutiny among maritime experts concerned that the ship is helping Houthi rebels target commercial sea traffic. The Behshad, which outwardly looks like a standard dry bulk carrier, moved to the Gulf of Aden in January after years in the Red Sea, just as attacks on vessels surged in the vital waterway off Yemen. It has since followed an unorthodox, slow and meandering course around those waters close to the entrance to the Red Sea. Experts also noted a drop in Houthi attacks during a period last month when the Behshad was seemingly out of action. Jon Gahagan, president of maritime risk specialist Sedna Global, said that for a supposed cargo vessel, the behaviour of the Behshad, registered and flagged in Iran, was “extremely unusual”. “It does ask major questions about her role in the current crisis,” he said of its movements and the links to the attacks. “If she isn’t providing the Houthi regime with intelligence on vessel movements, then just what is she doing?”

The mysterious Iranian ship accused of lining up the next Houthi targets

Maritime experts believe the Behshad provides data to help Yemeni rebels strike vessels in Gulf of Aden

www.ft.com

 

[seminole97]

 

[seminole97]

France's Aquitaine-class FREMM frigate Alsace has turned tail from the Red Sea after running out of missiles and munitions repelling attacks from the Yemeni armed forces, according to its commander, Jerome Henry.

"We didn’t necessarily expect this level of threat. There was an uninhibited violence that was quite surprising and very significant. [The Yemenis] do not hesitate to use drones that fly at water level, to explode them on commercial ships, and to fire ballistic missiles," Henry told French news outlet Le Figaro in an exclusive interview published on 11 April.



"We had to carry out at least half a dozen assistances following [Yemeni] strikes," he added. The commander of the Alsace also revealed that, after a 71-day deployment, all combat equipment was depleted.

"From the Aster missile to the 7.62 machine gun of the helicopter, including the 12.7mm, 20mm, or 76mm cannon, we dealt with three ballistic missiles and half a dozen drones," Henry adds.

According to the French commander, the Franco–Italian Aster missile – each carrying a price tag of up to $2 million – "was pushed to its limits" by the Yemeni armed forces, as the Alsace had to use it "on targets that we did not necessarily imagine at the start."

Henry added that Sanaa has markedly increased its use of ballistic missiles after relying mainly on suicide drones at the start of Yemen's pro-Palestine operations in the Red Sea and stressed that the French Navy has not faced such a tough battle since NATO collectively launched its 2011 war on Libya to depose the late ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

"I was there too. It wasn't the same thing. It has been even longer since we have engaged with this level of weaponry and violence. The threat to the boat was much greater in the Red Sea," Henry notes.

The Alsace entered the Red Sea in late January, a few weeks after the US and the UK launched an illegal war on Yemen to protect Israeli shipping interests. The frigate was deployed as part of the EU naval operation Aspides – Greek for shield.

With a mandate initially set for one year, Aspides saw the deployment of several EU warships and airborne early warning systems to the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and surrounding waters. According to authorities in Brussels, the mission is exclusively defensive, and its forces are not taking part in US-led attacks against Yemen.

Aspides came together after several NATO members proved hesitant or outright refused to join the floundering Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG), which a top US commander called one of the largest battles the navy has fought since the end of World War II.

"We favor a diplomatic solution. We know that there is no military solution," US Special Envoy for Yemen Timothy Lenderking said earlier this month, acknowledging the futility of Washington's military strategy against the Arab world's poorest country.

According to Yemeni sources who spoke with The Cradle, US officials recently offered Sanaa "an acknowledgment of its legitimacy" in exchange for its neutrality in the ongoing war on Gaza.

"[Washington] pledged to repair the damages, remove foreign forces from all occupied Yemeni lands and islands, and remove Ansarallah from the State Department’s ‘terrorism list’ – as soon as they stop their attacks in support of Gaza," The Cradle columnist Khalil Nasrallah cited the sources as saying.

The offer also includes "severely reducing" the role of the Saudi-appointed Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) and "accelerating the signing of a roadmap" with the Saudi-led coalition to end the nine-year war that has decimated Yemen.

Nevertheless, Yemeni officials have maintained that their operations in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean will continue until Israel stops the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. "From the coast of the Red Sea or from outside it, we can achieve the goals we want in defense of our country and support of Palestine … We still have many military surprises, and there are military operations that we are keeping secret as part of a specific media strategy," Mohammad Ali al-Houthi, a senior member of Yemen's Supreme Political Council, announced on April 3.