Quote (Goomshill @ Jun 19 2024 04:32am)
https://www.businessinsider.com/houthis-struck-merchant-ship-drone-disguised-fishing-boat-red-sea-2024-6Houthis sunk another vessel, killing at least 1, and traffic is down at least 90%. They used a suicide drone naval craft much like the ukrainian ones, except in this case disguising it as a fishing vessel
Notably, video from the liberian flagged, greek-owned vessel shows the crew were heavily armed. Which probably violated the laws at their ports and/or their insurance if they had any, but it illustrates more of the reality of the ships trying to run the red sea corridor
https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9942627Not a small vessel. Was sailing from Port Said to Aqaba, and Egypt made their law explicitly ban foreign flagged vessels from carrying any weapons or armed guards back in 2012 and jordan only lets naval vessels carry firearms if they surrender them at a naval base upon reaching port, which I seriously doubt would have been the case here either.
So we've got quite the pickle of a shadow war. Houthis armed by Iran, maybe even Russia by this point are interrupting the shipping lanes as a proxies against Saudi Arabia and the US/EU. Meanwhile the western vessels are flouting their own laws to arm up, but still don't have the kind of escorts or anti-ship weapons necessary to stop suicide drones.
Houthis are hitting like 1-2 ships a month at this rate. Some taking on heavy dmg like this one, others maybe not as much. Even after months of regular drone and missile strikes on the Houthis, it doesn't look like it's making much of a dent.
As months turn into years, so is our image as being this omnipotent power fading. How long until the Euros and others start making deals with our enemies because they realize we actually don't have the will to take on these militants?
I talked about this earlier, but it's not a huge stretch that the Houthi phenomena can spread to other critical areas as per below. We keep thinking we can escalate with some of these regional powers like Russia, Iran, China and they'll just sheepishly play defense. What a naive outlook.
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US intelligence has learned of discussions between Houthis in Yemen to provide weapons to the Somali militant group al-Shabaab, in what three American officials described to CNN as a worrying development that threatens to further destabilize an already violent region.
Officials are now searching for evidence that Houthi weapons have been delivered to Somalia, and are trying to work out whether Iran, which provides some military and financial support to the Houthis, is involved in the agreement.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/11/politics/us-intelligence-houthis-al-shabaab/index.htmland since that article that was written like a week or two ago?
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Al-Shabab has reversed all Somali National Army gains made in central Somalia over the last two years and is now working with Houthi militants to expand its capabilities, according to senior U.S. defense officials.
https://www.voanews.com/a/al-shabab-reverses-somali-force-gains-is-working-with-houthis-in-somalia-/7659656.htmlThis post was edited by ofthevoid on Jun 19 2024 09:46am