The Houthis attacks on vessels transiting the waterways off Yemen’s coast have become a “new normal” in the region, continuing the disruption to the global shipping industry.
The number of Houthi attempted attacks fluctuates each month, but they have repeatedly demonstrated the threat they pose to vessels sailing through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Several major shipping companies have decided to change their shipping routes to go on much longer and expensive voyages around the southern tip of Africa to avoid the possibility of an attack, but there is still some traffic that goes through the Suez Canal.
“It has become a new normal in several ways. For starters, I don’t think the Houthis are going to go away as a maritime threat actor anytime soon,” Wolf-Christian Paes, a senior fellow for Armed Conflict at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told the Washington Examiner. “After one year of somewhat robust military response, they still managed to launch missiles and other weapon systems on shipping. And at the same time, it’s also a new normal for the shipping industry, in the sense that they basically adjusted to it, right? I mean, so traffic is down 50%.”
As of mid-November, the Houthis have carried out more than 300 attempted attacks, while only 53 of them were successful, according to the IISS. They have said they’re carrying out the attacks in solidarity with Palestinians following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack in Israel and Israel’s subsequent retaliation.
The Houthis have fired anti-ship ballistic missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), unmanned surface vessels, and unmanned underwater vehicles. They have primarily used drones and ballistic missiles, which have made up about 220 of their 305 attacks as of the middle of last month.
Roughly 550 ships sailed through the Red Sea prior to the attacks, but slightly more than 200 are currently passing through it weekly, according to Loyd’s List, a maritime shipping news outlet. A recent analysis from the organization found that traffic through the Bab el Mandeb is down about 60% year on year and has been this way for six months or so.
The United States and several other countries began a defensive operation to protect ships that chose to go through those waterways, but they haven’t mitigated every attack.
They have sunk two vessels — both of which posed environmental threats — and they have killed a handful of civilian shipmen. In one of their first attacks, the Houthis targeted the Galaxy Leader ship and kidnapped the 25-person crew, who are still being held in Yemen more than a year later.
Earlier this week, the USS Gettysburg accidentally shot down a U.S. fighter jet as it took off from the USS Harry Truman to provide air support from incoming one-way attack drones and anti-ship cruise missiles “that were inbound to the force,” according to a U.S. defense official. The pilot and weapons officer ejected themselves from the jet and are safe, but one suffered minor injuries. The military has not recovered the aircraft and believe it likely sank, according to a U.S. defense official.
The incident, the first of its kind during the conflict, demonstrates how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become given the continued Houthi attacks.
The U.S. and the United Kingdom have carried out several rounds of joint airstrikes hitting Houthi targets, but they have not completely degraded all of their capabilities. U.S. forces in the region have conducted strikes to prevent imminent attacks on vessels as well.
The Houthis have ties with Tehran and are one of Iran’s allies in the region. While frequently labeled as one of Iran’s “proxies,” Paes argues that the Houthis “are an independent actor” and that “their goals are not one to one, the same as Iran’s.”
Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper agreed, telling the Washington Examiner, “They’ve been inspired and resourced by the Iranians, but in some ways, they are masters of their own fate, as compared to Hamas or certainly Hezbollah. They’re not necessarily inclined to always do exactly what Iran says. Iran created this little Frankenstein, and sometimes it’s hard to control them.”
U.S. forces have conducted two interceptions of vessels officials said were traveling from Iran to Yemen holding weapons intended for the Houthis. In one of those cases, two Navy SEALs were swept out to sea and declared dead after an extensive search for them.
President-elect Donald Trump designated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization and specially designated global terrorists in January 2021 as one of his last acts in office. The Biden administration reversed the decision shortly after coming into office. The Biden State Department redesignated the Houthis as an SDGT in early 2024, but they have not recategorized them as an FTO.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Trump could look to redesignate the group as a foreign terrorist organization once he’s inaugurated for his second term next month. His incoming national security adviser, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), signed onto a letter last year urging Secretary of State Antony Blinken to relist the group.
Israeli forces have also carried out attacks on the Houthis because the Houthis have fired over 200 missiles and 170 drones at Israel in the past year, according to the Times of Israel. The U.S. and U.K. strikes, as well as those from Israeli forces, have not stopped the attacks, though Israel carried out significant retaliatory strikes on Dec. 19.