Houthis Fire on U.S. Warship, despite ‘Private’ Message from U.S. to Iran
WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) – On Sunday, Yemen’s Houthis fired an anti-ship cruise missile at a U.S. destroyer, the USS Laboon, which is involved in protecting international shipping in the Red Sea against attacks by the Iranian-sponsored group.
A U.S. fighter aircraft shot the Houthi’s missile down, and there was no damage.
On Jan. 14 at approximately 4:45 p.m. (Sanaa time), an anti-ship cruise missile was fired from Iranian-backed Houthi militant areas of Yemen toward USS Laboon (DDG 58), which was operating in the Southern Red Sea. The missile was shot down in vicinity of the coast of Hudaydah by… pic.twitter.com/jftZHQhA2e
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) January 15, 2024
The latest Houthi attack follows two retaliatory strikes conducted by the U.S. early on Thursday and Friday mornings.
The latest attack also follows a brief statement that President Joe Biden made to reporters on Saturday, just before leaving for the presidential retreat of Camp David over the three day weekend that honors the black civil rights leader, Martin Luther King.
“Do you have a message to Iran in the face of all these attacks from the Houthis?,” Biden was asked on Saturday.
“We’ve delivered it privately, and we’re confident we’re well prepared,” Biden responded, without further explanation.
Yemen is a desperately poor country, with a per capita GDP of $650, according to the World Bank. It ranks among the 13 poorest countries in the world. The Houthis are not paying for the weapons they use against shipping. That comes from Iran, which plays a major role in supporting the Houthis.
It provides the ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones, all of which the Houthis have used against shipping in the Red Sea. Tehran also provides training to the group and intelligence to help it locate targets for its attacks.
Over the weekend, the British Foreign Secretary, Lord David Cameron, expressed himself quite clearly about the Houthi attacks—more clearly than U.S. officials have.
Cameron dismissed as “nonsense” the claim of the Houthis that they are attacking ships, because of Israel’s attacks in Gaza. Cameron also laid blame for the escalation of the Middle East crisis on the Houthis—and not the U.K. and U.S. The Houthis fired the first shot—the U.K. and U.S. are merely responding to their aggression.
The Houthi Attacks: Background to Latest Exchange
The Houthi attacks began on Nov. 19, over a month after Hamas’s bloody Oct. 7 assault on Israel. Over the past two months, the Houthis have launched 29 assaults on ships in the Red Sea. On Jan. 9, they launched a major assault which, in turn, prompted significant retaliation from the U.S. and U.K. early on the morning of Jan. 11.
The following day, also very early in the morning, the U.S. hit a Houthi radar site, describing that much more limited attack as a “follow-on action.”
Read More: U.S. strikes Houthi targets for second night running
The following day, on Saturday, Biden told journalists that the U.S. had sent a private message to Tehran.
On Sunday, the Houthis fired another round, suggesting that the White House’s private message may not have made much of an impression in Tehran.
“Nonsense”: U.K. Foreign Secretary Slams Houthis’ Claim that Attacks are in Support of Hamas
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Cameron slammed the Houthis’ claim that they are attacking Israeli ships or Israeli-bound ships in support of Hamas and the Palestinians.
The Houthis even claim their attacks are in accord with international law. Israel, they say, is committing genocide against the Palestinians, and there is an obligation to oppose genocide.
In his article, Cameron explains why the joint U.S.-U.K. strikes were necessary, including that the Houthis are posing a grave danger to international, commercial shipping. Houthi attacks have forced ships to take a longer, more expensive route around the southern tip of Africa, rather than go through the Red Sea and Suez Canal to travel between Europe and Asia.
The extended voyage around Africa disrupts supply chains and production, and the costs of the much longer trip are passed on to consumers.
Cameron, notably, has the backing of the leader of the opposition Labor Party, Sir Keir Stamer, who wrote of his support for the policy in Britain’s left-leaning newspaper, The Independent.
“The Iranian regime continues to play a destabilizing role in the region as a sponsor for terror,” Stamer said, while The Independent, in a separate piece, endorsed his view, stating, “It is vital that free democracies stand firm against terrorism on the high seas.”
Cameron also dismissed the Houthis’ claim that they are acting in support of the Palestinians as “nonsense.” He noted that the Houthis target vessels from many other countries traveling to many destinations other than Israel.
Indeed, one recent Houthi attack targeted a Russian oil tanker! It was a “ghost ship,” smuggling oil to circumvent the international sanctions imposed on Russia after its February 2022 assault on Ukraine. Ships involved in smuggling regularly turn off their trackers. Although the Houthi missile did not hit the Russian ship, the attack underscored the indiscriminate nature of the Houthis’ assaults—just as Cameron said.
Iranian Strategy
John Bolton, National Security Advisor under Donald Trump and U.N. ambassador under George W. Bush, advised Kurdistan 24 that the Houthi attacks are, in reality, one element in a broader Iranian strategy.
“I look at the conflicts across the region as all being on one chessboard,” Bolton said, “and the responsible party here are the ayatollahs in Tehran through their surrogate proxy groups—terrorists like Hamas, Hizbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, the Shi’ite militia groups in Iraq and Syria.”
Read More: Amb. John Bolton: Biden Administration fails to understand Iran’s centrality in regional attacks
On Sunday, in The Hill, a newspaper oriented toward the U.S. Congress, Bolton wrote that Hamas’s Oct. 7 “barbaric onslaught” on Israel “did not mark the onset of yet another Arab-Israeli war.” Rather, it “marked the beginning of an Iranian war against Israel, carried out by Tehran’s terrorist proxies.”
But “the threat has not fully registered throughout the West. Instead, too many decisionmakers see only unrelated regional crises,” Bolton continued, and “worry about an imminent ‘wider war,’ heedless that the wider war began Oct. 7.”
Regarding Iraq and Syria, “Shi’a militia groups, also fully supplied and financed by Iran, form another front, directed primarily against American military and civilian personnel,” Bolton wrote.
“Since Oct. 7, there have been well over 100 militia attacks, including the rocketing of the American embassy compound in Baghdad,” he continued, and the administration’s “minimal” responses “have not deterred further assaults.”