Yemen, Houthis and the Red Sea

Houthi rebels, who control the western parts of the country, including Yemen's capital Sana'a, hit a Turkish ship passing through the Red Sea.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry announced that the Panama-flagged dry cargo ship ‘Anadolu S’ was targeted.

‘Necessary initiatives are being taken to ensure that a similar incident does not happen again,’ the ministry said in a statement.

The UK Maritime Trade Organisation (UKMTO), which follows the attacks in the region, announced that the ship and crew are safe.

The Houthis have been targeting ships in the Red Sea since November 2023, after Israel launched a military operation against Gaza. The Houthis claim that they ‘targeted ships carrying aid to Israel’ in solidarity with Hamas.

The Yemeni rebels have detained one ship and sunk two others during this period.

Houthi attacks have also resulted in the deaths of crew members.

The remaining attacks either failed to reach their targets or were thwarted by the multinational naval forces of ‘Operation Welfare Guardian’, the US-led coalition to protect the safety of navigation in the region.

In addition to fending off threats to ships at sea, the US-led coalition has also been attacking Houthi targets in Yemen since January.

Most recently, US Central Command (CENTCOM) carried out airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen on 9-10 November.

The Houthis have been targeting ships in the Red Sea since November 2023, after Israel launched a military operation against Gaza.

The Houthis claim that they ‘targeted ships carrying aid to Israel’ in solidarity with Hamas.

Yemeni rebels have detained one ship and sunk two others during this period.

Houthi attacks have also resulted in the deaths of crew members.

The remaining attacks either failed to reach their targets or were thwarted by the multinational naval forces of ‘Operation Welfare Guardian’, the US-led coalition to protect the safety of navigation in the region.

In addition to fending off threats to ships at sea, the US-led coalition has also been attacking Houthi targets in Yemen since January.

Most recently, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) carried out airstrikes against Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen on 9-10 November.

Who are the Houthi rebels, where do they control in Yemen, and which major powers support them?

The Houthis, who control Yemen's capital Sana'a and the western parts of the country and are supported by Iran, claim that they ‘targeted ships carrying aid to Israel’ in solidarity with Hamas in response to Israel's attacks on Gaza.

However, in practice, it is observed that ships that have no connection with Israel are also targeted in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Due to the Houthi attacks, maritime traffic on the Red Sea route, which accounts for approximately 15 per cent of global maritime trade, has decreased significantly.

The majority of merchant ships are travelling through the south of Africa instead of the Red Sea, a much longer route.

US strikes Houthi targets for the fourth time

Following this development, the US military announced that it attacked 14 Houthi missiles loaded for firing from Yemen.

Stating that the Houthi missiles posed an imminent threat to commercial vessels and US Navy ships in the region, the US Central Command said in a statement on the social media platform X, ‘These missiles on launch rails... could have been fired at any time, causing US forces to exercise their inherent right and obligation to defend themselves.’

The operation, which Yemen News Agency reported involved British warplanes, was the fourth US strike in less than a week.

The United States aims for its strikes to reduce the Houthis' ability to continue their reckless attacks on international and commercial vessels in the Red Sea, the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden.

The Houthis, for their part, claim that the attacks on ships are in support of the Palestinians.

Since November, attacks by Iran-allied Houthi militias on ships in the region have slowed trade between Asia and Europe and alarmed major powers at a time when the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza is escalating.

Who are the Houthis?

The Houthis, officially Ansarullah, are a Zaidi group operating in Yemen. The group is named after its founder Hussein Bedreddin al-Houthi. They started an armed uprising for the first time in 2004. Since 2004, it has received financial and military support from Iran. In 2015, they captured Sana'a and the parliament with their struggle. The slogan of the group is ‘God is great! Death to Israel, death to America, curse on Zionism, victory for Islam!’. This slogan appears on Houthi flags. The organisation has between 7,000-30,000 armed militants and about 450,000 civilian supporters.

History of the Houthis

The Ansarullah Movement was founded in the early 1990s as a small group focused on cultural and religious activities in the Sada region of northern Yemen, near the border with Saudi Arabia.

On 10 September 2004, Houthi leader Hussein Bedreddin al-Houthi was killed in an operation by troops loyal to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. This event was a turning point for the Houthi Ansarullah Movement.

Red Sea attacks

They launched attacks on the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and is the shortest route between Europe and Asia. Disrupting the flow of maritime trade in the region, where about 12 per cent of global trade is carried out, the Houthis in Yemen, which emerged in response to Israel's attacks in Gaza and supported by Iran, started to seize commercial ships off the coast of Yemen on 31 October 2023 on the grounds that they were affiliated with Israeli companies or to carry out attacks with drones and missiles.

After the attack began, the ships diverted their route to the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa. This route lengthens the route by about 4,000 nautical miles compared to the Suez Canal, which opened on 17 November 1869, and delays the transport time between Asia and Europe by about two weeks.