Houthi missile attack from Yemen severely injures civilian sailor.

 

Houthis in Yemen. BBC/Reuters.

A Houthi missile attack from Yemen has severely injured a civilian sailor. BBC. The Houthis hit the MV Verbena, a Palauan flagged and Ukrainian owned cargo ship, with two cruise missiles in the Gulf of Aden. It comes one day after another successful hit against a Greek owned cargo ship in the Red Sea, causing severe flooding. The Houthis have been attacking shipping in both the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden ever since the war in Gaza broke out. A US lead coalition against the Houthis have not stopped the attacks. The area is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world. 

My Comment:

A fairly grim reminder that the shipping war in Yemen is continuing. So far the war has mostly been casualty free but in this case someone got hurt. Though it seems like the attacks have tapered off they have not stopped and eventually the Houthis are going to actually going to cause a mass-casualty event. 

I do think it's safe to say that the US led attacks on Houthi targets accomplished very little. The attacks have continued. They have slowed but that is probably due to the Houthis blowing through their weapons, not because the strikes did much of anything. I am guessing that Iran sent them a new shipment of weapons and that's why things are picking up again. 

I don't see these attacks ending anytime soon. As long as Yemen is getting weapons they will continue to use them. Their end-goal is to end the war in Gaza and that doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon. And even if it does end, why would they stop? Their attacks haven't been super successful but it has forced most shipping out of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, forcing it to go around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, dramatically increasing shipping costs and travel time. In short, the Houthis are winning and are getting prestige for standing up to the west. 

Awhile back I wrote about how Russia said they could start sending weapons to America's enemies. In that post I said that the Houthis in Yemen would be a perfect place to do so as the weapons could be put to good use. The Houthis have been limited by the effectiveness of Iran's weapons. Though Iran's missiles and drones are decently effective, Russia's are even better and it's very possible that Russia will give more advanced weapons to them. Russian cruise missiles have more power and greater range than Iranian ones and Russian air defenses are peerless. It remains to be seen if they will give the Houthis any weapons though. 

I do think that this is another example of Biden' foreign policy being terrible. The Houthi situation was mostly resolved and there were not attacks on shipping. Biden's strikes against the Houthis did nothing and I don't even know if he is still aware that these attacks are happening, given how little attention he is giving them. I don't really know how we end the shipping war but I do know that Biden is not the right man to do so...