US destroys Houthi boats, kills Iran backed rebels in Red Sea

The sinking of Houthi boats in the Red Sea and killing of militants supported by Iran raises the risk that the Gaza war could drag the US into the broader tensions in the region.

The Danish owned Maersk Hangzhou was attacked by Houthi rebels. Picture: Twitter.

The US Navy destroyed three boats carrying militants supported by Iran after they attacked a containership in the Red Sea, while Iran-allied militias struck a U.S. base in Syria, raising the risk that the war in Gaza could drag the US into the broader tensions in the region.

On Saturday evening, the Maersk Hangzhou, a Singapore-flagged container vessel that operates between Europe and Asia, came under missile attack, said the US. Four boats later approached the vessel, shot at it and attempted to board it, according to Danish shipping giant Moller-Maersk, which operates the containership.

Early Sunday, helicopters from nearby U.S. Navy vessels responded to fire coming from boats controlled by Houthis, an Iranian-backed rebel group in Yemen, sinking three of them and killing the crews, the U.S. said. The fourth boat fled. The Houthis later claimed the attack and said they lost 10 fighters in the encounter.

There have been more than 20 attacks by the Houthis on commercial vessels since they started striking at commercial ships in November. A US defence official said the sinking of the boats “is the first time we have seen this kind of close combat between the US and the Houthis.” White House spokesman John Kirby told ABC that the US is “not looking to widen the conflict in the region.” “We certainly do not seek conflict with the Houthis,” Kirby said.

But Andrew Tabler, a former Middle East director at the White House’s National Security Council, said the sinking of the ships were “rungs on the regional escalation ladder.”

An AV-8B Harrier aircraft, attached to Marine Medium Tilt Rotor Squadron 162 lands on the flight deck of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Bataan in the Red Sea. Picture: Us Central Command.

Iranian-backed militant groups have undertaken a series of attacks on Western interests in response to U.S. support for Israel’s military effort, including assaults on vessels passing through the Red Sea. Earlier this month, shipping companies, oil producers and cargo owners suspended transit through the Red Sea after some vessels were attacked by Houthi militants.

In light of the incident, Maersk said it has decided to delay all transits through the area for the next 48 hours.

The Iranian allies initially said they were targeting Israeli shipping activities in retaliation for the war in Gaza, but have now broadened the attacks to other vessels sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb, a key crossing between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.

“The attacks have lost all connection to Israel completely,” said Ami Daniel, chief executive of maritime artificial intelligence company Windward Ltd. “The Houthis don’t seem to be deterred by the coalition.” The Indian navy last week dispatched three guided-missile destroyers to protect commercial vessels in the Arabian Sea, following an attack on a chemical tanker off the Indian coast. The U.K. also sent a warship this month to join a U.S.-led naval task force.

On Sunday, British Foreign Minister David Cameron told his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, that “Iran shares responsibility for preventing these attacks given their longstanding support to the Houthis.” Amir-Abdollahian blamed Western support for Israel for instability in the broader Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday said he supports an international coalition to protect waterways, but said that Israel “won’t let this threat hurt the citizens of Israel and the Israeli economy.” Christopher Long, intelligence director at Neptune P2P and a former British Navy captain in the Persian Gulf, said he was concerned the lethal exchange between the Houthis and the U.S. “will now create a situation where Iran may intervene directly against the U.S. in support of the Houthi.” Houthi spokesman Mohammad Abd al-Salam discussed “regional security issues” with Iran’s security chief, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, on Sunday in Tehran, Iran’s state news agency IRNA said.

Meanwhile, multiple attack drones were launched Sunday at Rumalyn Landing Zone, a U.S. base in Syria, the U.S. defence official said. Another similar attack took place Saturday against a U.S. military facility in Erbil, Iraq, the official. There were no injuries or damage in either attack, which were both claimed by Iran-aligned militias in Iraq. There have been about 113 attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17, according to U.S. officials.

The Israeli military said a hostile aircraft crossed into its airspace from Syria on Sunday, before being shot down. Iran-allied Iraqi militias later said they had struck Israel’s Golan Heights out of Syria.

Meanwhile, Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesperson, said that Israeli forces in Khan Younis raided what he described as Hamas’s local headquarters, which also housed a Hamas intelligence command centre. In recent days, Israel reinforced its ground troops with additional paratroopers in Khan Younis, the military confirmed.

The military also reported clashes with Hamas across the city, where Israeli forces killed and captured several of Hamas’s elite Nukhba fighters, as the military continues to expose tunnels and combat militants’ rocket-launching capabilities. Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday that Israeli forces killed more than 100 militants in the past two days.

Israel is putting special emphasis on gaining ground in Daraj Tuffah, one of the last northern Gaza areas into which it moved ground forces, and what Hagari on Saturday called “Hamas’s last significant stronghold in the northern Gaza Strip.” Israel has promised to eradicate Hamas in response to the Oct. 7 attack that it says killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel. The U.S. has designated Hamas as a terror organisation.

In the wake of that assault, Israel unleashed an offensive on Gaza that has killed 22,141 people, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Most of those killed were women and children. The authorities’ figures don’t distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.

Netanyahu vowed on Saturday to take control of Gaza’s border with Egypt to cut off Hamas’s weapons-smuggling line. Analysts say that taking the border would require moving Israeli ground forces into the border town of Rafah, which could further raise tensions with Egypt.

Expanding operations to Rafah would be “very, very sensitive because of the Egyptians,” said Shalom Ben Hanan, a former senior Israeli intelligence official. Cairo will be worried that refugees will flee across the border, said Yoni Ben Menachem, a former captain in Israel’s military intelligence who is now a senior Middle East analyst for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, an Israeli think tank.

“But you cannot finish the military operations and leave the Hamas stronghold in Rafah and Philadelphi Corridor,” said Ben Menachem, referring to the stretch of land along the Gaza-Egypt border. “It’s out of the question militarily.” Controlling the border would likely also require demolishing homes to create even a minimal security perimeter, said retired Israeli general Giora Eiland.

“If Israel decides that it wants this area, it would have to create a corridor of at least 500 meters [0.3 miles] wide, otherwise tactically speaking it would not be able to protect Israeli forces who are operating there,” Eiland said.

The plan is also facing opposition from the Palestinian Authority, which the U.S. hopes could play a role in governing Gaza after the war. Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor would signal a “return [to] the occupation … ending all agreements with the Palestine Liberation Organisation,” said PLO Secretary-General Hussein Sheikh on Sunday. The Palestinian Authority is the government of Palestinians in the West Bank, and the PLO is the Palestinians’ political representative internationally.

Moreover, Rafah has swollen with displaced civilians, as most of Gaza’s 2.2 million people have fled southward.

Tensions have also continued flaring in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has conducted raids on Palestinian militants.

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad faction claimed it had detonated an improvised explosive device targeting an Israeli armoured bulldozer late Saturday, in Tulkarem in the northern part of the Palestinian territory.

Meanwhile, a Hamas delegation is expected to visit Cairo in the coming days to discuss an Egyptian proposal to end the war.

Israel’s war cabinet is set to meet on Sunday night to discuss hostage affairs, according to an Israeli official.

The proposal calls for an initial pause in fighting to allow for the release of roughly 50 Israeli hostages currently held by Hamas in exchange for around 150 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.

A ceasefire deal would be followed by the formation of a transitional government for both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank made up of various Palestinian factions, including rivals Hamas and Fatah.

While the final phase concerning the governance of post-war Gaza is the biggest sticking point, due in part to the rivalry between the Palestinian groups, the Egyptian officials said they are working with Qatar on a temporary pause in fighting that would allow for the release of the hostages and prisoners.

Hamas has insisted on a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, while Israel has said it has no intention of immediately withdrawing its forces.