Iran-Backed Houthi Terrorists Hit Several Cargo Ships
“The crew of a UK-registered cargo ship in the Red Sea were evacuated after it was damaged in a missile attack by Iran-backed Houthi rebels,” the London Evening Standard reports.
Exactly three years after President Joe Biden removed the Houthis from the terrorist list, the Iranian-backed terror group is wreaking havoc on the high seas. Over the weekend, the Yemen-based jihadists struck several cargo ships, including a British vessel feared to be sinking.
The British ship was ‘taking in water’ after a Houthi missile strike damaged its hull, British news reports suggest. “The crew of a UK-registered cargo ship in the Red Sea were evacuated after it was damaged in a missile attack by Iran-backed Houthi rebels,” the London Evening Standard reported
The missile attack on the British ship was one of many carried out by the Houthis on the same day. “Yemen’s Houthis have mounted one of their most damaging attacks yet on a commercial vessel after the Iran-backed group struck a bulk carrier and forced the crew to abandon ship,” the UK daily Financial Times reported Monday night. “The attack was one of three on foreign vessels over 24 hours. Another dry bulk carrier, the Sea Champion, faced two missile attacks on Monday in the Gulf of Aden. On Monday evening the Houthis claimed to have successfully attacked the dry bulk vessel Navis Fortuna,” the business newspaper added.
Watch: Footage of the British ship sinking after being attacked and hit by the Houthis earlier today The crew abandoned the ship before it sank pic.twitter.com/saG6FavI3Y
— Chaskel Bennett (@ChaskelBennett) February 19, 2024
The BBC reported:
The crew of a Belize-flagged, British-registered cargo vessel have abandoned ship off Yemen after it was hit by missiles fired by the Houthi movement.
The Rubymar was in the Gulf of Aden near the Bab al-Mandab Strait when it was hit and the crew abandoned ship. The Houthis later claimed it had sunk.
It is one of the most damaging attacks so far by the Iran-backed Houthis.
They have launched dozens of missiles and drones at merchant vessels and Western warships since mid-November.
The Houthis say their attacks are a show of support for the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
A Houthi spokesman said the vessel suffered “catastrophic damage” and had sunk. There was no independent confirmation of this.
However, the UK government said the Rubymar was taking on water, had been abandoned and the crew taken to safety.
It condemned the attacks as “completely unacceptable” and said the UK and its allies reserved the right to respond appropriately.
It is puzzling how the Biden administration had trouble judging the true nature of the Yemini terrorist group. The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah (or the helpers of Allah in Arabic), make no secret of their true jihadist intentions in their official logo: “Allah is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory for Islam.”
Report: Biden admin pushes for UN to back Gaza ceasefire, halt Israeli offensive on Hamas stronghold of Rafah
The Biden administration has tabled a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the planned Israeli military offensive on Rafah, the last major terrorist stronghold.
“The US has proposed a UN security council resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire and for Israel not to go ahead with a planned offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza,” the UK daily Guardian reported Monday.
The newspaper noted that the “significance of the draft resolution is as a signal that Washington is willing to go through the UN to put pressure on Israel and not rely solely on bilateral messages.”
The capture of Rafah is central to the Gaza ground offensive, which began in response to the mass murder and kidnapping of Israelis on October 7, the Israeli government and military planners say. Hamas’ Gaza-based leadership is believed to be hiding in Rafah, using the remaining Israeli hostages as human shields against advancing Israeli troops. The fall of Rafah, the terror tunnel-ridden jihadist bastion on Egypt’s border, will also cut Hamas’ sole escape and weapons supply route.
Defying threats from the Biden administration, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to ‘fight until total victory’ against Hamas, which includes the capture of Rafah. “There is no substitute for total victory and there is no other way to do it than eliminating the [Hamas] battalions in Rafah,” he declared on Saturday.
Reuters reported the Biden administration bid to bully Israel at the UN:
The United States has proposed a rival draft United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and opposing a major ground offensive by its ally Israel in Rafah, according to the text seen by Reuters.
The move comes after the U.S. signalled it would veto on Tuesday an Algerian-drafted resolution — demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire — over concerns it could jeopardize talks between the U.S., Egypt, Israel and Qatar that seek to broker a pause in the war and the release of hostages held by Hamas.
Until now, Washington has been averse to the word ceasefire in any U.N. action on the Israel-Hamas war, but the U.S. text echoes language that President Joe Biden said he used last week in conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It would see the Security Council “underscore its support for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released, and calls for lifting all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale.”
The United States does “not plan to rush” to a vote and intends to allow time for negotiations, a senior U.S. administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Monday.
To pass, a resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the U.S., France, Britain, Russia or China.
The U.S. draft text “determines that under current circumstances a major ground offensive into Rafah would result in further harm to civilians and their further displacement including potentially into neighboring countries.”
IDF raids Hamas ‘Central Bank,’ seizes $250 million worth of terrorist fund
The IDF raided the Hamas-run ‘central bank’ in southern Gaza and confiscated more than $250 million worth of terrorist funds, the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS exclusively reported Tuesday. The latest raid is part of the operation that has seized large sums of cash hoarded in the homes of leading Hamas operatives.
The i24NEWS reported the IDF raid:
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted an operation at a central bank in Gaza, finding over a billion shekels ($250 million), a security source told i24NEWS.
The operation targeted Hamas funds at the bank in Khan Yunis, conducted over the last 48 hours, and seizing what was found in 12 safes that were broken into.
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Just one month into the war, back in November, the IDF officially announced the seizure of over $1 million in various currencies that were found in Hamas strongholds.The IDF at the time stated that the The Loot Removal Unit of the Technology and Logistics Division had confiscated the money from homes of wanted persons and locations where Hamas was active, this latest operation would be a more targeted operation in the war on the terrorist organization. (…)
According to Colonel Olivier Rafowicz, an IDF spokesman, hundreds of millions of dollars have been stolen for years by Hamas from the International community, money that was aimed to help developing infrast
🇮🇱-Fighting continues in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, with the IDF saying troops of the 7th Armored Brigade killed dozens of Hamas operatives over the past day.
The brigade, in addition to using tank shelling and sniper fire, called in several airstrikes on Hamas gunmen, the IDF… pic.twitter.com/cKmQ7GsDdE
— Michael Weingardt (@Michael_Wgd) February 20, 2024
The IDF is strengthening its hold over southern Gaza, a prerequisite for launching the final blow to Hamas in Rafah.
“The troops directed an aircraft which struck and killed terrorists in the area. IDF troops also conducted targeted raids on military compounds and located weapons, including explosive devices and RPG missiles intended to be used in attacks on IDF troops,” the Israeli military announced Tuesday morning. “IDF troops are continuing to operate in western Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Over the past day, the troops conducted targeted raids on terrorist infrastructure, killed terrorists, and located large quantities of weapons in the area,” the military added.
Over the past 24hrs, IDF troops in Gaza:
🔺Continued intensive operations in western Khan Yunis and central Gaza and eliminated dozens of terrorists, including by directing IAF aircraft and through tank and sniper fire.
🔺Directed the IAF to strike a Hamas weapons storage… pic.twitter.com/7Ooygvs1Fv
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 20, 2024
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to be fair
when you say “Iran backed”
you mean obama/biden backed
Iran , Biden Syndicate, Obama, most Dems, and most certainly significant numbers of Pales and other Muslims in America.
When Iranians were trying and succeeding in killing and maiming US troops in Iraq the Bush admin did diddly squat. Kind of a sore point for me as I was on the receiving end of several of those attacks in Ramadi …..I got knocked about by blast waves from IED and VBEID but didn’t lose any limbs unlike many others.
No POTUS has gone after the Iranians in meaningful way since Reagan, and even then it was far from complete, more of a skirmish. The truth is our European ‘allies’ have deep ties to lots of unsavory regimes including Iran. Then there’s the impact on world oil markets if we took out Iranian port facilities and some refining capacity. The impact on the ‘global rules based order’ aka globalism would be dire which is why no US President has ordered a meaningful attack to remove the key economic output of Iran…oil. Raising gas prices is not the path to re-election.
If we started producing fuel again and knocked out Iran’s production, it could be quite profitable.
For that to work you would need the additional infrastructure of rigs operating, pipeline to carry it and facilities in place at domestic ports to temporary store and terminals to fill the tankers before military action occurs.
Then there’s the issue of refining. Refineries usually only handle a particular grade of oil so processing US oil from Gulf coast v Bakken v the oil from the Dakotas will need specific tolerances built into the refineries at the destination.
Add in the amount of pisstivity that the Middle Eastern producers will have about it just on general principle to pacify their own populace and those Nations will almost certainly cut production. The US would be ok mostly but Europe would be effed.
It’s possible this action would drive these Nations to abandon the petro dollar and demand payment for oil be made in another currency or even gold. That’s just the economic side. Could be domestic terror strikes over it.
There’s a lot of nuance in this which is why no Presidential admin will be willing to pull that trigger. Every problem doesn’t need a hammer to fix it. Is using a hammer fun? Sure. Is it satisfying to think about taking a hammer to your opponent’s noggin? Yep….but in the end you need to be sure you understand the secondary and tertiary impacts and the potential consequences. More importantly that you are willing to accept them as well as any unforseen consequences you didn’t think of b/c the opponent gets to hit back as well using the means and methods they see fit to employ.
Don’t worry about this. Brandon and his merry bunch of adults are all over this like a rash!
I mean honestly, what could possibly go wrong?
The mere fact that Houthis are still attacking and haven’t had their offensive ability reduced to dust demonstrates the fecklessness of the Democrat regime.
Yemen is larger than California….with TWICE the coastline. It’s going to take way more than a Carrier Strike Group to neutralize the Houthi offensive capabilities. To substantively degrade their ability to strike targets in their littoral waters, we would need to insert significant numbers of ground forces, something the Saudis were unwilling to do which is why after a decade of armed conflict with The Kingdom, the Houthis are as strong as ever.
For understandable reasons, there is no domestic appetite to get involved in another ground war in the Middle East, particularly in a shithole like Yemen.
Just out of curiosity — why is massive and intense guided missile and aerial bombardment, of the type that Biden and the Dhimmi-crats have thus far refrained from availing themselves of against the Houthis, insufficient to accomplish the goal of greatly eliminating most Houthis and degrading their terrorist infrastructure?
One reason is expense. Our cruise missile supply is not endless which is something we have to keep in mind considering the current threat dynamic of a potential two-front war: Russia and China. The other reason is intelligence. You need to have quality intelligence to put together targeting packages that generate battlefield returns. There’s limited utility signals intelligence can provide. At some point in any sustained campaign, you have to lean into intelligence gathered on-the-ground.
How hard is all this? Well, against an opponent that is FAR less sophisticated than the Houthis, the Taliban was able to withstand 20-years of US a US firepower machine, one that dwarfed the weekly capability of the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group.
I think sometimes we lose sight of how difficult war is. We were able to accomplish our primary military objectives in the 1st & 2nd Gulf Wars in reasonably short order. But, we were able to do that because we surged an INCREDIBLE fighting force in preparation of those engagements. If we could have just used a CSG to accomplish those military goals, we would have.
Good and fair points; I appreciate your insights.
Yet it seems like Iran has a limitless supply of drones and missiles to give to the terrorists.
Oh yeah, we paid for that courtesy of Bend Over Biden.
We had naval units in that area back in Nivember. We also have hd satellite surveillance and recording capability almost worldwide for decades. You can’t convince me that, back in November, we were unaware of the source of the vessel attacks in that shipping zone.
Had we wanted to I believe we could have initiated a targtted response inflicting serious damage to every place used as a launch base for air or sea attacks. Every time a ship had been attacked by these guys, view the satellite data identify the source and send a little “missive” to that source and destroy it. If a vessel, sink it. If a shed in somene’ backyard launching missiles, destroy it. If a warehouse in an industrial complex is the launch point of the destructive missile, destroy that.
The problem is we tend to play fotsie under the table when what is needed is for the big guy sitting across frm the initiator to jump up into the table, climb across it, and take out the troublemaker. DO that ten times, and they’ll tuck tail and run home.
remember Thomas Jefferson’s response to the Barbary Pirates north coast of Africa back in 1806 or so. He sent forces tto hit them hard, fas, and cintinually until they sued for peace…. on their terms. Then he went back to work until they were ready to accept terms of total unconditional surrender. That problem was ended, completely and permanently.
IMO it would not take any more forces at all to stop the Houthis. Start bombing Iran infrastructure, especially their oil facilities, with the message that it will continue until their agent in Yemen stops firing..
You’re describing declaring war on Iran. Iran isn’t Afghanistan or Iraq. They have capable air defense systems and their terror network is immense. More problematically, they have the capability to hit Israel through their Hezbollah proxies in a horrible way, likely with enough capability to sustain a missile barrage that can quickly overwhelm the Iron Dome. There’s a reason the Iranian nuclear program has been allowed to continue…Iran’s ability to punch back is that reason.
Fair enough. I’d submit, just as a general proposition, that Iran’s belligerence and terrorist attacks on U.S. servicemembers and allied servicemembers and civilians — whether directly, or, through proxies, should have been dealt with, decisively, decades ago. That the Iranian regime has been allowed to get away with this excrement for so long, without facing a severe and punishing reprisal, is part of the reason why the regime is so emboldened and brazen in its behavior, today.
War with Iran is going to be a necessity. I’d also submit that as an objective matter, Iran has been at war with the U.S. and its allies since the 1979 Islamic revolution. It’s just that the U.S. has been naive, feckless and myopic in its posture towards Iran, under multiple Dhimmi-crat presidential administrations. A regime this brazenly malevolent, that declares its genocidal intention to “wipe Israel off the map,” cannot be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon.
Yes, eventually we’re going to have to confront Iran. But, we’re simply not ready to that today, not as an invasion of Taiwan looms in the foreseeable future. The stark reality is our military is not ready right now. We have allowed too many critical weapons systems to fall into a state of disrepair or unreadiness (our entire Osprey flight is grounded ATM, for instance) and we’ve allowed our weapons caches to dip dangerous below minimum thresholds, in large part due to sending equipment/munitions to Ukraine and resupplying Iron Dome missiles to Israel.
You mean they are holding back on their sponsored terrorism against Israel?
More than likely, yes. They likely have some ability – perhaps a significant ability, perhaps something less – to hit US and allied interests across the region. When they’re called the largest state-sponsor of terrorism, that’s not an honorary, unwarranted designation. As I said, they’re terror capability is immense and their medium-range ballistic missile stockpile is believed to be significant. A barrage of missile at the Kuwait and Saudi oil fields would send prices skyrocketing.
Exactly. Scorched earth on all Iranian oil facilities and military facilities. That’s what’s necessary and is long, long overdue. Sadly, we know the vile and feckless Dhimmi-crats will never do that, because they’re completely subservient and obsequiously devoted to kowtowing to Muslim supremacists, terrorists and Islamofascists.
Except that not all of it is controlled bu the Houthis. They have been engaged in a civil war for a couple of decades, now, IIRC. And anti-ship missile and “ship drone” launchers are not things you can just hide in a house and disappear into the crowd. Also, most of that 2x-California is out of range of the Red Sea.
I’m thinking you don’t know what you are talking about.
In the last three year’s defense budgets we have purchased a total of ….150 tomahawk cruise missiles combined during that three year period. We bought a little over 1,200 over the last decade. Those bad boys are $2.5 + million EA that usually get fired off at tents in the desert that may or may not have any value as military target but…they sure look cool on news reels and WH can say ‘hey we responded forcefully’.
Gonna have to put teams on the ground to locate these MFRs then call in strikes with trained observers. At minimum. That leads to risk of death or worse capture of US troops. Not a risk a WH usually wants to take when their actual objective is a PR cycle victory v a strategy victory.
Lol. I spent 20+ years as Marine infantry officer. I’d love to hear your qualification, skippy.
I suspected you had served; your comments had the air of personal experience. Thank you for your service. 🙂
and why are there not flotillas with global military escorts?
Where are the choke points? The Red Sea is globally disruptive because it is a choke point for a lot of otherwise spread out trade. The Middle East is a sort of object lesson in trade routes being a thing,
Unless the Houthis are building those missiles themselves, what with their massive arms industry, the materiel has to come in somehow.
They’re re-supplied by Iran via the sea. We’ve been interdicting suspected arms ships for a couple months now. In fact, that’s how those SEALs died a few weeks ago. The problem, of course, is the Houthis already have a significant stockpile of ASBMs; it’s believed they haven’t fired any of their more sophisticated (Iranian-built) ASBMs…yet. Additionally, for us to really put the squeeze on their supply shipments, we would need to establish a naval blockade, something there doesn’t seem to be any allied appetite for at the moment. But, if this continues, I suspect even the most reluctant EU allies will get onboard because what’s happening now is beginning to put upward pressure on commodity/goods prices, particularly in the EU.
Good info, thanks.
Given the transfer to Russia, one wonders when Iran — arsenal of who? — will have drawn down their stockpiles.
Meanwhile, the French did declare a while back: “Screw your defensive op C & C; we’re takin our orders from home!” Our European friends are getting some education in concrete realities, lately; or rather their sanctimonious upper crust is. No, the solution to everything is not “Moar Europe.”
“Feckless” as not really appropriate, as this anti-American Democrat regime is deliberately allowing this sort of thing to go on.
“Dooooonn’t”
– Joe Biden, last month.
Did you catch the troll from The Orange Crush’s town hall the other day? Asked about Ukraine, he said, it wouldn’t have happened on his watch: “I’d have told him ‘don’t.'”
“Don’t.”
Snerk. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Hic.
Is it wrong to elect someone Prezzy just for the trolling? I mean, if our betters can elect image-puppets for their self-regard, can I embrace my inner low-life, n elect a boorish, ego-driven troll just for the LULZ?
/Moar popcorn.
Where are the climate alarmists? This can’t be good for the oceans or the atmosphere.
To Leftists, any damage done to the environment while attacking the United States or its interests is in fact a blessing.
Subotai Bahadur
Or the US fault. They shouldn’t *have to* attack We made them hit us — we were asking for it.
There’s a case for other countries hitting at the US, particularly in the Mid-East. It takes collective punishment to extend that to third party cargo on third party transport. Some make that claim — it’s the whole Old World Order messing with them.
I prefer to know which claim we’re dealing with, BUT, what with “intersectionality” writ lage that’s hard to do.
Iran should be receiving as much or more punishment as Houthi terrorists. Israel neutralizing reportedly 70% of Hamas is good, but not good enough to produce lasting peace.
1. “No Hostages, No Peace”
2. The Gulf of Yemen = Gulf of Tonkin
(We will be a decade disengaging)
Muslim supremacists, terrorists and Islamofascists can do no wrong. Muslims are an alleged “victim” class.
That’s the utterly wretched operating premise on which the vile, emasculated, feckless, naive and stupid Dhimmi-crats’ destructive foreign policy is grounded.
As with communism, previously, the Dhimmi-crats are simply ideologically and temperamentally incapable of acknowledging the intrinsic supremacism, totalitarianism, belligerence, hatred and innumerable pathologies of the ideology of “Submission.”
Islamic world will soon recruit BLM and other greivance gangs into the fold and use LGBTQIAWTF+ folks as the useless idiots. They already have two legs to stand on…media and education…and will soon make us strangers in our own land while the lush, resourceful lands they occupy become playgrounds for the elite and off-limits to proles.
That recruitment effort that you describe is already well under way, I submit.
To elaborate — many of the BLM propagandists and other protesters during year 20202 and afterwards, have expressed “intersectional” solidarity with the allegedly “black and brown” Fakestinians. Along with demonizing Israel with the slanderous lie that it teaches American law enforcement officers tactics which are used to victimize black Americans.
The alphabet brigade of LGBTWTF and the trannies are already 110% on board with supporting Muslim supremacism, terrorism and Islamofascism, even though most Muslim supremacists would throw them off of a rooftop, given the chance.
No need to submit; they’ve said it out loud. And going on since before BLM was a thing — national group founded by self-declared “trained Marxists”, already trained when the new label started.
When there is no world policeman the criminals are running rampant.
It seems the best answer is to play whack-a-mole. Whenever they shoot something off you smash that site and you smash it so hard that nothing survives. Eventually, the problem solves itself.
Yes. Eventually, there’s no where to hide.
As noted above, “whenever they shoot something off you smash” SOMETHING IN IRAN. If the Houthis are agents of Iran, they will stop. If not, let Iran stop them. We get a “twofer” out of this strategy.
curious Iran doesn’t have a problem with any proxy groups terrorizing their strategic assets…. Someone is slow to learn how the game is played.
At least Israel knows how to make Iranian enrichment facilities disappear.
You do understand these are mobile platforms? It isn’t as they are high investment fixed sites we can just target and destroy to solve the problem over a weekend.
They may be mobile that they will still take several minutes to pack up and move. Plenty of time to launch a ship-based missile at them
Iron claw,
By the time the multiple actions that have to occur before launch of a strike at the launch coordinates are executed those guys won’t be anywhere near it. They are using drones for some attacks. Launching a missile is even quicker.
All they need is a pick up truck, drive out, stop, put up a ramp or whatever, send it up, grab their gear and haul ass. It’s gonna be on a very low altitude flight path to avoid radar detection. Unless you have eyes on the launch those boys ain’t gonna be anywhere close to the point of origin and your $2.5+ million tomahawk missile you want to use v a point of origin is wasted on empty space.
We had the same problem in the sandbox. Dudes with a pickup truck and a mortar tube and 3 rounds. They go out somewhere and stop. One guy sets the base plate, one sets the tube and the last guy hangs the rounds. By the time counter battery radar acquired the point of origin those boys have packed up and are gone. Sure we’d still put some 155 arty or 120 mortars on the launch point depending on distance but the far more effective way is to send out additional forces and redirect existing presence patrols to cut off avenues of escape and take them down. Pain in the ass but it works and of course requires boots on the ground.
That is why Israel has thermobaric bombs. I haven’t seen any data on Israel’s, but ours are capable of incinerating, depending on the model used, between 1/2 and 1 mile diameter area
Dementia Joe getting pushed around the world stage by 4th world clowns.
smh
Quite an arms industry they must have in Yemin, what with all those missiles, drones, and boats.
The media conveniently forgets that one of the first things the Bidumb administration did in 2021 is force the Saudis to stop bombing the Houthi rebels because it was ” genocide”.
Both Biden and Obama released finds to Iran that allowed funding of terrorists around the region. Now we are bombing Houthis that we ordered the Saudis not to bomb…. and the Saudi’s successful solution was to build a wall on the border with Yemen….sounds familiar for some reason……..
Can Democrat foreign policy get any more stupid?
“Can Democrat foreign policy get any more stupid?”
Good god, don’t dare them.
How much longer before we start hearing claims from Traitor Joe that the Houthis are attacking because of climate change?