by A clash between Iranian-backed Houthi fighters attacking a commercial cargo ship and US Navy helicopters responding to the ship’s distress call ended Sunday morning with the deaths of all crew members on three Houthi ships, he said. the Pentagon, in a sharp escalation of violence. at a time when the White House is considering direct attacks against Iran’s proxies in the Middle East.
It appeared to be the first time that U.S. and allied forces patrolling the Red Sea, a critical waterway for oil and other shipping, were involved in a deadly firefight with the Houthis since they began their attacks on ships in October, following the outbreak of war. between Israel and Hamas. President Biden has said that he wants to avoid direct military attacks against the Houthis in Yemen, to avoid escalating a conflict in the Middle East that already threatens to spread throughout the region.
But in the fighting that broke out Sunday morning, Navy forces had no choice, at least according to the account of the United States Central Command.
The Houthis had launched an attack on the Maersk Hangzhou cargo ship, a Singapore-flagged container ship, and were attempting to board it. As the ship’s security forces attempted to keep the attackers at bay, helicopters from the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier group arrived to chase them away, and the Houthis opened fire on them.
“Small craft fired at the U.S. helicopters with small arms and crew-equipped weapons,” Central Command said in a declaration. “US Navy helicopters returned fire in self-defense, sinking three of the four small ships and killing the crews.” Central Command did not say how many had been killed, but in a statement later on Sunday the Houthis said 10 of their fighters had been killed.
“The American enemy bears the consequences of this crime,” they said in a statement, and “its military movements in the Red Sea to protect Israeli ships will not prevent” the Houthis “from fulfilling their religious, moral and humanitarian duty in support and help those who have been wronged in Palestine and Gaza.”
The incident now presents a difficult choice for Biden and his administration. Senior officials said they must decide whether to attack Houthi missile and drone sites in Yemen, or wait to see if the Houthis back down after the sinking of three of their speedboats and the deaths of their fighters.
Ten days ago, the administration declassified intelligence indicating that Iranian paramilitary groups were coordinating Houthi attacks, providing information on commercial shipping passing through the waterway and the Suez Canal. Israel relies heavily on Red Sea shipping traffic.
In response to the attacks, the United States has created a multinational naval task force to protect commercial vessels in both the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The effort, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian, so far includes about 20 countries, including Britain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain. Most Arab states have refused to join, with the exception of the small Gulf state of Bahrain, which hosts a major US naval base, home to the Fifth Fleet, and recently concluded a security agreement with the United States.
Top Pentagon commanders have been pushing for more aggressive action against the range of Iranian proxies that are attacking U.S. forces, including in Syria and Iraq. Last week, the United States attacked a base in Iraq used by Kataib Hezbollah after an attack that injured three American soldiers, leaving one in critical condition.
But the most pressing problem appears to be in the Red Sea, where the Houthis have launched dozens of missile and drone attacks on commercial ships in response to Israel’s war against another Iranian-backed group, Hamas.
While US forces have attacked missile and drone launch sites in Syria and Iraq, Biden has been reluctant to order the same against Houthi bases in Yemen. The caution is due to many considerations, but chief among them is that Saudi Arabia wants to move beyond its costly war in Yemen. The escalation of the conflict with the Houthis, who control the capital, Sana, and much of the north of the country, could sink a carefully negotiated truce.
“Everyone is looking for a way to reduce tensions,” Tim Lenderking, the US special envoy for Yemen, said in an interview earlier this month. “The idea is not to plunge the region into a broader war, but rather to use the tools we have at our disposal to encourage the Houthis to reduce their reckless behavior.”
At least, that was the strategy until Sunday.
While the United States shot down Houthi missiles and drones, deployed warships, and created the task force to protect shipping, the one thing it did not appear to do was interact directly with the Iranian-backed militia. That self-imposed moratorium ended the standoff to protect the Maersk ship.
Pentagon officials have drawn up detailed plans to attack missile and drone bases in Yemen, and some of the facilities where speedboats of the type used to attack the Maersk container ship appear to be moored. But there is some concern that such attacks will influence Iran’s game plan.
“I have doubts about what the strikes would do,” said Adam Clements, a former U.S. military attaché in Yemen. “The relationship between Iran and the Houthis benefits greatly from the conflict, so why create more?”
But several retired senior US officials with experience in the Gulf region say it is essential to restore US deterrence, a view shared by many in the Pentagon. In 2016, the United States attacked three Houthi missile sites with Tomahawk cruise missiles after the Houthis fired on Navy and commercial ships. Houthi attacks ceased.
The situation today is different. The Houthis have vowed to continue attacking until adequate supplies of food and medicine are allowed to Hamas, where a humanitarian disaster has been unfolding since the Israeli attack began. The attack followed the Hamas-led attack on October 7 against Israel that Israeli officials said killed 1,200 people.
In Israel, shortly after midnight on Monday, sirens sounded throughout the central part of the country warning of rocket fire from Gaza.
The administration has so far bet that assembling the international naval task force in the Red Sea is the best way to isolate the Houthis and reduces the group’s ability to present itself as a fighter against the United States or Israel.
The countries that participate – and many of those that remain on the sidelines – have both commercial and security interests in the initiative. Maersk had just resumed shipping before the Hangzhou attack; Now it has suspended shipments again.
Yemeni political analysts, and the Houthis themselves, have dismissed the task force as an ineffective exercise that will do little to deter the Houthis, who say they crave a direct confrontation with the United States.
The Pentagon has another concern: deterring attacks against US forces.
“The biggest problem is that the United States since early October has also been accepting as normal the persistent Houthi missile and drone attacks” in the Red Sea, said Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, retired commander of the Fifth Fleet.
“Failing to respond when U.S. forces are attacked in any way puts the lives of U.S. sailors and Marines at risk if a missile manages to penetrate U.S. defenses,” he said. “It also sets a new precedent that attacking a US ship carries a low risk of retaliation and, as we have seen, invites further attacks by the Houthis.”
