Acts of piracy by the Houthi insurgents of Yemen escalated on Wednesday as the Iran-backed terrorists launched two missiles at a commercial tanker full of jet fuel as it approached the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
A U.S. Navy warship responding to the incident shot down a Houthi drone that may have been sent to attack it.
The tanker Ardmore Encounter, flagged in the Marshall Islands, was passing through the Red Sea on its way to the Suez Canal when it came under Houthi attack.
The tanker departed from Mangalore, India, with a cargo of jet fuel produced by Shell MRPL, a joint venture between the Shell oil company and India’s national oil firm. The fuel was ultimately bound for Europe.
According to the owner of the vessel, the Ardmore Shipping Corporation, armed security officers aboard the ship used their weapons to drive away several skiffs loaded with pirates. The Houthis apparently launched missiles at the ship after this boarding attempt was repelled. Fortunately, both of the missiles missed the Ardmore Encounter.
“No one boarded the vessel, and all crew members are safe and accounted for. The vessel remains fully operational with no loss of cargo or damage on board,” the Ardmore Shipping Corporation said in a statement on Wednesday.
The USS Mason, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, has been patrolling near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and has responded to previous Houthi attacks on shipping. When the USS Mason responded to the attack on the tanker, a drone launched from Yemen approached the American warship. The Mason was able to destroy the drone.
“At the time of the shoot-down, the Mason was responding to reports that a commercial oil tanker was under attack from suspected Houthi forces. We are not currently aware of any injuries to personnel or damage to vessels,” a U.S. defense official told the Navy Times.
The Mason shot down another drone launched from Yemen on December 6. Another U.S. destroyer in the Red Sea, the USS Carney, has also intercepted drones from Yemen.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) believes all of these drone launches and missile strikes were “fully enabled by Iran,” which funds and arms the Houthis.
The Houthis began hijacking and attacking ships off the Yemeni coast in December to “blockade” Israel and help the savage Hamas terrorists of Gaza. The Houthis at first claimed they would attack only Israeli-linked ships, then said they would hit all ships bound for Israeli ports. The Ardmore Encounter would not appear to fit either of those criteria.
Houthi forces board the cargo ship Galaxy Leader on November 19, 2023. (Houthi Media Center via AP)
Wednesday’s incident was the first reported Houthi attack on a ship bound for the Suez Canal. About ten percent of the world’s oil shipping passes through the region currently being menaced by the Iran-backed insurgents.
The Biden administration has been slow to respond to the escalating provocations from Yemen, as it was slow to respond to Iran-backed militia attacks on American troops in Iraq and Syria. On Thursday, U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking said the administration wishes to assemble the “broadest possible” coalition to protect Red Sea shipping.
Lenderking said a broad multi-national coalition would send “an important signal by the international community that Houthi threats to international shipping will not be tolerated.”
“There’s a very, very active assessment going on in Washington about what are the steps necessary to get the Houthis to de-escalate,” he said.
Lenderking did not indicate which nations the Biden administration is trying to recruit for this broad multi-national force, what naval assets they could bring to bear, or why this coalition is assembling so slowly while Iran’s proxy forces are shooting missiles at tankers full of jet fuel.
Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani on Thursday warned that America’s effort to assemble a Red Sea coalition against the Houthi terrorists is “irrational” and would face “extraordinary problems.”
“Nobody can make a move in a region where we have predominance,” he boasted, without elaborating on his veiled threat against the U.S. Navy and other forces operating in the region, such as France.
The Houthis are a jihadi movement that calls itself “Ansar Allah,” the Army of Allah. Its slogan is “Allahu Akbar, Death to the United States, Death to Israel, Curse the Jews, Victory for Islam.” President Joe Biden lifted Ansar Allah’s classification as a terrorist organization in February 2021.
