Houthi rebels from Yemen attack and capture a Japanese freighter.

 

File photo of the Galaxy Leader. NBC News/AP.

Houthi rebels from Yemen have attacked and captured a Japanese freighter in the Red Sea. NBC News. The Houthis attacked via a helicopter and rappelled down to the deck of the freighter. The attack came after the Houthis threatened shipping in the region due to the war between Israel and Gaza. The ship was not involved with Israel with the ship having no Israeli crew members and was owned by Japan and flagged in the Bahamas. It has picked up cargo in Turkey and was bringing it to India. The Houthis have been very involved in the Israel-Hamas war, launching missiles, both cruise and ballistic, and drones against Israel. 

My Comment:

From what I understand there were 25 crew members aboard the Galaxy Leader when it was attacked and now all of them are being held by the Houthis. This is a major escalation and will likely lead to conflict, perhaps even war, if they are not released soon. 

The one thing you don't mess with is international shipping. If you do the hammer of the gods comes down on you. When the Somali piracy situation became out of control the entire world worked together to stop it. Even North Korea and the United States worked together to help stop the pirates and they were eventually successful. 

This has a huge chance of drawing other nations into the war. Countries won't tolerate their shipping being attacked and given the strategic position of Yemen, the only way to avoid the area is to go around the Cape of Good Hope, and that's not viable for many reasons, the most obvious being the fact that it's thousands of miles out of the way. 

This attack was fairly sophisticated by piracy standards. Most pirate attacks don't involve commandos rappelling down from a helicopter. It's another example how the Houthis are not just another Islamist terror group, they are an actual army with powerful military assets, including ballistic missiles and drones. 

Getting this crew back is going to be difficult. The only thing that they have going for them is that none of them are Israelis and the ship itself has little to do with Israel. If the Houthis feel that keeping them would be dangerous they might release them since their quarrel is with Israel, not the rest of the world. 

But I don't think it's going to play out that way. The Houthis are ideologically driven and are also proxies with Iran. They have leverage here and could use it to pressure countries into not backing the war in Gaza. They could even kill some of the hostages, though as Shia Muslims that seems somewhat less likely. 

A military option to get these hostages back would be difficult to say the least. Again, the Houthis have a large and advanced hybrid military. They have a lot of tech like drones and missiles that would make operations against them difficult. It wouldn't be impossible but there would be a higher chance of failure than you would see in most cases like this. My hope is that the hostages will be released and make the whole issue moot, but if not it will be an ugly rescue operation to say the least...