US Navy faces its most intense combat since World War II against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels

An HSC-7 helicopter lands on the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Laboon in the Red Sea, Wednesday on June 12, 2024. (AP)
An HSC-7 helicopter lands on the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Laboon in the Red Sea, Wednesday on June 12, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 15 June 2024
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US Navy faces its most intense combat since World War II against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels

US Navy faces its most intense combat since World War II against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels
  • The Houthis say the attacks are aimed at stopping the war in Gaza and supporting the Palestinians, though it comes as they try to strengthen their position in Yemen

ABOARD THE USS LABOON IN THE RED SEA: The US Navy prepared for decades to potentially fight the Soviet Union, then later Russia and China, on the world’s waterways. But instead of a global power, the Navy finds itself locked in combat with a shadowy, Iran-backed rebel group based in Yemen.
The US-led campaign against the Houthi rebels, overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, has turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II, its leaders and experts told The Associated Press.
The combat pits the Navy’s mission to keep international waterways open against a group whose former arsenal of assault rifles and pickup trucks has grown into a seemingly inexhaustible supply of drones, missiles and other weaponry. Near-daily attacks by the Houthis since November have seen more than 50 vessels clearly targeted, while shipping volume has dropped in the vital Red Sea corridor that leads to the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean.
The Houthis say the attacks are aimed at stopping the war in Gaza and supporting the Palestinians, though it comes as they try to strengthen their position in Yemen. All signs suggest the warfare will intensify — putting US sailors, their allies and commercial vessels at more risk.
“I don’t think people really understand just kind of how deadly serious it is what we’re doing and how under threat the ships continue to be,” Cmdr. Eric Blomberg with the USS Laboon told the AP on a visit to his warship on the Red Sea.
“We only have to get it wrong once,” he said. “The Houthis just have to get one through.”
Seconds to act
The pace of the fire can be seen on the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, where the paint around the hatches of its missile pods has been burned away from repeated launches. Its sailors sometimes have seconds to confirm a launch by the Houthis, confer with other ships and open fire on an incoming missile barrage that can move near or beyond the speed of sound.
“It is every single day, every single watch, and some of our ships have been out here for seven-plus months doing that,” said Capt. David Wroe, the commodore overseeing the guided missile destroyers.
One round of fire on Jan. 9 saw the Laboon, other vessels and F/A-18s from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower shoot down 18 drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles and a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis.
Nearly every day — aside from a slowdown during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan — the Houthis launch missiles, drones or some other type of attack in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the waterways and separates Africa from the Arabian Peninsula.
The Navy saw periods of combat during the “Tanker Wars” of the 1980s in the Arabian Gulf, but that largely involved ships hitting mines. The Houthi assaults involve direct attacks on commercial vessels and warships.
“This is the most sustained combat that the US Navy has seen since World War II — easily, no question,” said Bryan Clark, a former Navy submariner and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. “We’re sort of on the verge of the Houthis being able to mount the kinds of attacks that the US can’t stop every time, and then we will start to see substantial damage. … If you let it fester, the Houthis are going to get to be a much more capable, competent, experienced force.”
Dangers at sea and in the air
While the Eisenhower appears to largely stay at a distance, destroyers like the Laboon spend six out of seven days near or off Yemen — the “weapons engagement zone,” in Navy speak.
Sea combat in the Mideast remains risky, something the Navy knows well. In 1987, an Iraqi fighter jet fired missiles that struck the USS Stark, a frigate on patrol in the Arabian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war, killing 37 sailors and nearly sinking the vessel.
There’s also the USS Cole, targeted in 2000 by boat-borne Al-Qaeda suicide bombers during a refueling stop in Yemen’s port city of Aden, which killed 17 on board. AP journalists saw the Cole patrolling the Red Sea with the Laboon on Wednesday, the same day the Houthis launched a drone-boat attack against a commercial ship there that disabled the vessel.
That commercial ship was abandoned on Friday and left adrift and unlit in the Red Sea, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.
Rear Adm. Marc Miguez, the Navy’s commander for its Carrier Strike Group Two, which includes the Eisenhower and supporting ships, said the Navy had taken out one underwater bomb-carrying drone launched by the Houthis as well during the campaign.
“We currently have pretty high confidence that not only is Iran providing financial support, but they’re providing intelligence support,” Miguez said. “We know for a fact the Houthis have also gotten training to target maritime shipping and target US warships.”
Asked if the Navy believed Iran picks targets for the Houthis, Miguez would only say there was “collaboration” between Tehran and the rebels. He also noted Iran continues to arm the Houthis, despite UN sanctions blocking weapons transfers to them.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations told the AP that Tehran “is adept at thwarting the US strategy in a way that not only strengthens (the Houthis) but also ensures compliance with the pertinent resolutions.”
The risk isn’t just on the water. The US-led campaign has carried out numerous airstrikes targeting Houthi positions inside Yemen, including what the US military describes as radar stations, launch sites, arsenals and other locations. One round of US and British strikes on May 30 killed at least 16 people, the deadliest attack acknowledged by the rebels.
The Eisenhower’s air crews have dropped over 350 bombs and fired 50 missiles at targets in the campaign, said Capt. Marvin Scott, who oversees all the air group’s aircraft. Meanwhile, the Houthis apparently have shot down multiple MQ-9 Reaper drones with surface-to-air missile systems.
“The Houthis also have surface-to-air capabilities that we have significantly degraded, but they are still present and still there,” Scott said. “We’re always prepared to be shot at by the Houthis.”
A stalemated war
Officers acknowledge some grumbling among their crew, wondering why the Navy doesn’t strike harder against the Houthis. The White House hasn’t discussed the Houthi campaign at the same level as negotiations over the Israel-Hamas war.
There are several likely reasons. The US has been indirectly trying to lower tensions with Iran, particularly after Tehran launched a massive drone-and-missile attack on Israel and now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
Meanwhile, there’s the Houthis themselves.
The US directly fighting the Houthis is something the leaders of the Zaydi Shiite group likely want. Their motto long has been “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.” Combating the US and siding publicly with the Palestinians has some in the Mideast praising the rebels.
While the US and European partners patrol the waterways, Saudi Arabia largely has remained quiet, seeking a peace deal with the Houthis. Reports suggest some Mideast nations have asked the US not to launch attacks on the Houthis from their soil, making the Eisenhower’s presence even more critical. The carrier has had its deployment extended, while its crew has had only one port call since its deployment a week after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Meanwhile, the Houthi attacks continue to depress shipping through the region. Revenue for Egypt from the Suez Canal — a key source of hard currency for its struggling economy — has halved since the attacks began. AP journalists saw a single commercial ship moving through the once-busy waterway.
“It’s almost a ghost town,” Blomberg acknowledged.

 


Hundreds rally in Tunisia to demand release of Saied critic

Hundreds rally in Tunisia to demand release of Saied critic
Updated 9 sec ago
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Hundreds rally in Tunisia to demand release of Saied critic

Hundreds rally in Tunisia to demand release of Saied critic
  • Moussi, who had hoped to run in last year’s presidential election, stands accused of charges including “seeking to change the form of the state”

TUNIS: Hundreds demonstrated in the Tunisian capital on Saturday calling for the release of Abir Moussi, a critic of President Kais Saied jailed for more than a year.
The demonstrators shouted “freedom for Abir” and “we are opponents, not traitors” at the gathering in central Tunis, AFP journalists reported.
Moussi, 49, heads the Free Destourian Party, which critics accuse of seeking to restore the iron-fisted rule that Tunisians overthrew in the Arab Spring protests of 2011.
She has been in custody since her arrest in October 2023 outside the presidential palace where her party says she was seeking to lodge appeals against Saied’s decrees.
Moussi, who had hoped to run in last year’s presidential election, stands accused of charges including “seeking to change the form of the state.”
Saied was elected in 2019 but launched a sweeping power grab in 2021 and has since effectively ruled by decree.
In October, he was re-elected in a landslide after his main opponents were jailed.
Moussi was sentenced to 16 months in prison in November on charges of spreading “false news” after she criticized the electoral authority.
A leading figure in her party, Thameur Saad, said on Saturday that her conviction “is not worthy of a country that calls itself democratic.”
 

 


Hope and tears as youngest Israeli hostage turns two

Hope and tears as youngest Israeli hostage turns two
Updated 4 min 39 sec ago
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Hope and tears as youngest Israeli hostage turns two

Hope and tears as youngest Israeli hostage turns two
  • “Today, I tried to write a birthday message for Kfir for the second time,” his aunt Ofri Bibas Levy said
  • Hamas said in November 2023 that the two boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli air strike, but the Israeli military has not confirmed their deaths

TEL AVIV: Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv to demand freedom for hostages held in Gaza, anxious the ceasefire deal would collapse, with many dwelling on the fate of Kfir Bibas, the youngest captive whose second birthday fell on Saturday.
“Today, I tried to write a birthday message for Kfir for the second time,” his aunt Ofri Bibas Levy said. “A message for a child who cannot celebrate... A child trapped in hell. A child who might not even be alive. But no words come out, only tears.”
Taken alongside his now four-year-old brother Ariel and his mother and father, Shiri and Yarden, he has become a symbol of the suffering of the hostages.
“I have two orange ballons on my car,” said Sigal Kirsch in Tel Aviv’s “Hostage Square.” The color has become symbolic of the Bibas boys, both of whom are red-heads.
“I don’t have the words,” she said, visibly overcome with emotion.
Hamas said in November 2023 that the two boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli air strike, but the Israeli military has not confirmed their deaths.
Coming together to protest barely 12 hours before the first three hostages are due to be released, many couldn’t bring themselves to believe after so much false hope that the ordeal of the hostages might finally be over.
“Once they cross the (Gaza) border and they will be rejoined with their families then maybe we can breathe again,” said Shahar Mor Zahiro, the nephew of slain hostage Avraham Munder.
Anxiety was the overwhelming mood.
“This past week was hell,” said Kirsch, who had been every week to the gatherings at Hostage Square, across the road from Israeli military headquarters.
“On Tuesday we were sure that the deal would be signed... and it took until last night. So we’re very, very anxious,” she said.
The deal agreed between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, via mediators, is broken into three phases.
But, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under pressure from far-right elements of his government opposed to a ceasefire, protesters and families of the hostages expressed fears that the deal would collapse.
“In one sense (the mood) is a little more hopeful, and in another sense, it’s very sad. Because for the people who aren’t in the first phase, I can’t imagine how their hearts bleed at this point,” said Neil Trubowiz, 75, from Tel Aviv, in Hostage Square.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who opposed the deal, said he would remain in the government but that the prime minister had promised him the war would continue.
Mor Zahiro demanded that what he called “extremist elements” in the cabinet be prevented from collapsing the deal.
“Tell them to shut up!” he said. “Let the people come back to their loved ones.”
He denounced the idea that the war could start again. “Stop the fighting. Stop the war. Stop everything. Don’t shoot another bullet, let us heal. This is really crucial, otherwise there will be hell here for the next 50 years.”
On Saturday night, Netanyahu gave protesters and hostage families further cause for anxiety, saying the ceasefire deal could not go ahead until Hamas handed over a list of hostages to be released.
He also said in a televised address that Israel “reserved the right to return to war.”
Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage during Hamas’s surprise October 7 attack, 94 of whom remain in captivity in the Gaza Strip, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
The lengthy ceasefire process, with the first 33 hostages released in small groups over 42 days, followed by a second and third phase that are still to be negotiated, leaves multiple opportunities for the process to collapse.
“We’re anticipating some good news tomorrow, but on the other hand, we’re very wary of what could happen in the meantime,” said Guy Perry, 58, also from Tel Aviv.
He described the possibility of a final end to the war and the return of all hostages as a “very, very dim light” at the end of the tunnel.
Despite their fears the deal could collapse at any moment, many couldn’t help but hope.
“I cannot wait to see my uncle, I really hope he managed to survive,” said Efrat Machikawa, whose uncle Gadi Moses turned 80 while held hostage in Gaza.
“I have to trust my hope. This has to happen, they have to come back.”


What we know about the Gaza hostage and prisoner exchange

What we know about the Gaza hostage and prisoner exchange
Updated 7 min 2 sec ago
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What we know about the Gaza hostage and prisoner exchange

What we know about the Gaza hostage and prisoner exchange
  • Israel’s Justice Ministry published their details early on Saturday, along with the ceasefire agreement, which said 30 Palestinian prisoners would be released for each female hostage on Sunday

JERUSALEM: The ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas is due to take effect from 8.30 a.m. (0630 GMT) on Sunday, following final approval of the deal by the Israeli government.
Thirty-three of the 98 remaining Israeli hostages, including women, children, men over 50 and ill and wounded captives, are to be freed over the course of the first phase of the ceasefire, due to last six weeks. Israel believes most are still alive but has received no confirmation from Hamas.
In return, Israel will release almost 2,000 Palestinians from its jails.
They include 737 male, female and teen-aged prisoners, some of whom are members of militant groups convicted of attacks that killed dozens of Israelis, as well as of 1,167 Palestinians detained in Gaza since the start of the war and held in Israel.
Israel’s Justice Ministry published their details early on Saturday, along with the ceasefire agreement, which said 30 Palestinian prisoners would be released for each female hostage on Sunday.
During the first phase of the ceasefire, the Israeli army will pull back from some of its positions in Gaza and Palestinians displaced from areas in northern Gaza will be allowed to return.
A second phase, exchanging the remaining hostages and completing the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza is expected to follow, depending on the results of negotiations, which will begin 16 days from the start of the ceasefire.

HOSTAGE AND PRISONER HANDOVER
On Sunday after 4 p.m. (1400 GMT), Israel will hand over 95 Palestinian prisoners and will receive three hostages in exchange. The prisoners to be released on the first day of the ceasefire do not include any prominent detainees, and many were recently detained and not tried or convicted.
The identity of the three hostages to be handed over is not yet known. The military says it will publish the names once they have received the hostages.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN THEY ARE HANDED OVER?
The hostages will be handed by Hamas to Red Cross officials who will take them to the Israeli military in Gaza. The military has set up three locations near the northern, central and southern edges of Gaza in Erez, Re’im and Kerem Shalom to take charge of the hostages, according to the route they take out.
The hostages will be met there by medical staff, welfare specialists and psychologists to help with the initial transition before they are reunited with their families.
They will be taken by vehicle or helicopter to specialized facilities set up to receive them and help them adjust to returning from the trauma of 15 months in captivity. They will be kept away from the press and will receive medical and psychological support.

 

 


El-Sisi highlights Egypt’s commitment to Libyan unity

El-Sisi highlights Egypt’s commitment to Libyan unity
Updated 18 January 2025
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El-Sisi highlights Egypt’s commitment to Libyan unity

El-Sisi highlights Egypt’s commitment to Libyan unity
  • Haftar’s last visit to Cairo was a few months before nationwide parliamentary and presidential elections that were later delayed due to disagreements over their legal framework

CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Saturday hosted Libyan military leader Khalifa Haftar for their first meeting since September 2021.
El-Sisi’s office said that during their talks, he stressed Egypt’s commitment to “ensuring the unity and cohesion of Libya’s national institutions.”
He also urged “coordination between all Libyan parties to crystallize a comprehensive political roadmap” toward long-overdue parliamentary and presidential elections.
Haftar’s last visit to Cairo was a few months before nationwide parliamentary and presidential elections that were later delayed due to disagreements over their legal framework.
Libya, which borders Egypt to the east, is struggling to recover from years of conflict after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ended dictator Muammar Qaddafi’s four-decade rule.
The country remains split between the UN-recognized government of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in Tripoli and Haftar’s authority in the east.
El-Sisi on Saturday said “all foreign forces and mercenaries must be expelled from Libyan territory.”

 

 


Nearly 200,000 Syrian refugees have returned since Assad’s fall: UN

Nearly 200,000 Syrian refugees have returned since Assad’s fall: UN
Updated 18 January 2025
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Nearly 200,000 Syrian refugees have returned since Assad’s fall: UN

Nearly 200,000 Syrian refugees have returned since Assad’s fall: UN
  • Between December 8 and January 16, some 195,200 Syrians returned home
  • Those returns came before a lightning offensive by Islamist rebels late last year ousted Assad

GENEVA: Nearly 200,000 Syrian refugees have returned home since the fall of Bashar Assad in early December, the UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said Saturday ahead of a visit to the region.
Between December 8 and January 16, some 195,200 Syrians returned home, according to figures published by Grandi on X.
“Soon I will visit Syria — and its neighboring countries — as UNHCR steps up its support to returnees and receiving communities,” Grandi said.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians had returned home last year as they fled Lebanon to escape Israeli attacks during its conflict with the Hezbollah militant group.
Those returns came before a lightning offensive by Islamist rebels late last year ousted Assad, raising hopes of an end to a 13-year civil war that killed over half million dead and sent millions seeking refuge abroad.
Turkiye, which shares a 900-kilometer (560-mile) border with Syria, hosts some 2.9 million Syrians who have fled since 2011.
Turkish authorities, who are hoping to see many of those refugees return to ease growing anti-Syrian sentiment among the population, are allowing one member of each refugee family to make three round trips until July 1, 2025 to prepare for their resettlement.