Houthis Attack Tanker As US Warship Downs Drone
Yemen’s Houthis fired two missiles that missed a commercial tanker carrying jet fuel and headed for the Suez Canal, Associated Press quoted a US official as saying.
Yemen’s Houthis fired two missiles that missed a commercial tanker carrying jet fuel and headed for the Suez Canal, Associated Press quoted a US official as saying.
A US Navy warship also shot down a suspected Houthi drone flying in its direction during the same incident, the official said. These incidents came after repeated threats to shipping issued by Houthi officials in the past two days.
The tanker, Ardmore Encounter, was transporting Indian-made jet fuel apparently not destined for Israel. When Iran-backed Houthis began their attacks on vessels last month their declared targets were ships bound for Israel. However, recently they threatened all shipping passing through the Red Sea. The Ardmore is reportedly headed for Europe.
The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker was also threatened by skiffs loaded with men trying to board the vessel, AP reported. The tanker had armed guards on board who fired on the would-be hijackers and drove them off. The Ambrey private intelligence firm said that “No one boarded the vessel, and all crew members are safe and accounted for.”
Although Iran has avoided direct military involvement in the Gaza war despite its long-standing threats against Israel, its armed proxy forces in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have launched more than 90 attacks. US bases in the region and international shipping have been targets for Iran’s “Resistance Front.”
A US Navy warship also shot down a suspected Houthi drone flying in its direction during the same incident, the official said. These incidents came after repeated threats issued by Houthi officials in the past two days.
Earlier on Wednesday, a Houthi official said his group possesses “formidable leverage” against countries that participate in a naval coalition in the Red Sea.
Mohammed Al Bukhaiti issued the threat after news emerged that the United States was discussing a naval coalition with 12 countries to protect shipping in the Red Sea. The Houthi official was speaking to Sama News, a Palestinian outlet.
Iran-backed Houthis have launched numerous attacks against commercial vessels in the strategically vital shipping lanes in retaliation for Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
On Tuesday, a senior official from Yemen's Houthis warned cargo ships in the Red Sea to avoid traveling toward Israel, after the group claimed an attack on a commercial tanker earlier in the day.
The Houthis earlier said they hit a Norwegian commercial tanker with a missile in their latest protest to Israel's bombardment of Gaza, underlining the risks of a conflict that has shaken the Middle East.
Al Arabiya has reported that according to a Pentagon official, the Biden administration is in talks with 12 allied countries to form a task force to secure the passage of commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
However, the Houthis mostly attack the vessels with missiles and drones and navies trying to protect the shipping lanes need to be able to shoot down every incoming projectile. This would not fully secure the right of safe passage, as long as Houthis are not deterred to seize their attacks.
Biden administration critics have argued for retaliation against Houthis and other Iranian backed militia forces in the region. Militant groups in Syria and Iraq have launched around 90 attacks so far against US bases, with a few US retaliatory strikes.
The US administration, however, seems to be relying more on diplomatic contacts to prevent the attacks. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani, condemning a recent attack on the US embassy in Baghdad, as well as the series of attacks on American personnel in Iraq and Syria.
An announcement by the State Department said, “The Secretary noted that the attacks are being carried out by militias who are acting with the support of Iran and undermining Iraq’s sovereignty and independence. They committed to remain in close contact over the coming days and weeks.”
The attacks in the Red Sea have overshadowed rocket and drone attacks against US forces. In addition to avoid heading toward Israel, which the Houthis referred to as "occupied Palestine", ships that pass Yemen should keep radios turned on, and quickly respond to Houthi attempts at communication, Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen's Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, said in a message on the X social media platform.
Al-Houthi also warned cargo ships against "falsifying their identity" or raising flags different from the country belonging to cargo ship owner.
The Iran-backed group attacked the tanker, the STRINDA, because it was delivering crude oil to an Israeli terminal and after its crew ignored all warnings, Houthi military spokesperson Yehia Sarea had previously said in a statement.
The Houthis have waded into the Israel-Hamas conflict - which has spread around the region - attacking vessels in vital shipping lanes and firing drones and missiles at Israel more than 1,000 miles from their seat of power in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.
Iran's judiciary on Sunday accused Johan Niels Floderus, a 33-year-old Swedish citizen and EU diplomat of extensive intelligence collaboration with Israel against the Islamic Republic.
The foreign ministry spokesman Naser Kanaani on Monday backed the hardliner Judiciary that has accused other foreigners in the past for similar crimes. Kanaani insisted that charges and crimes committed by Floderus have been clearly defined by the judiciary and sufficient evidence has been provided.
However, similar trials against foreigners in the past were held behind closed doors, without due process of law.
Judicial process will be followed in Floderus’ case, Kanaani said, implying that there could be no intervention by the foreign ministry or other authorities to secure his release from prison. “The judiciary will perform its duties as an independent authority,” he said.
Kanaani added that the Swedish government has been informed of the details of the case, but there is no evidence of that.
“The defendant has been active against the Islamic Republic of Iran in the field of information collection for the benefit of the Zionist regime in the form of subversive projects conducted by well-known American, Israeli and European institutions active in this area,” a statement by the prosecutor read at the first session of Floderus’ trial Sunday alleged.
The prosecutor has demanded sentencing Floderus in accordance with article 286 of Iran's Islamic Penal Code. This article stipulates that anyone found guilty of extensive crimes against the Islamic Republic’s domestic or international security leading to “serious disruption in public order and security in the country” should be sentenced to death for “corruption on earth”.
"Johan Floderus has been arbitrarily detained and every accusation and charge is false," a spokesperson for Sweden's foreign ministry said in an emailed comment to Reuters on Sunday.
Top EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also urged Iran on Sunday to free Floderus immediately. "I persistently raise the case at every occasion and contact with the Iranian authorities, since his detention, requesting his liberation," he said.
"We are seeking clarification and more information from them, in closest coordination with the Swedish authorities who bear the consular responsibility," he added.
Many believe that the Swedish EU diplomat whose family and friends say was on holiday in Iran is a victim of the Islamic Republic’s ‘hostage policy’.
The Islamic Republic has widely been accused of routinely arresting foreigners and dual citizens to use them as bargaining chips against Western countries and can demand the release of its own nationals held in Sweden such as Hamid Nouri, a former deputy prosecutor, in return for freeing Floderus, a citizen of Sweden and the European Union in danger of execution.
Nouri is serving a life sentence in Sweden for human rights violations as a prison official in 1980s when thousands of detainees were hanged in Iranian prisons after summary trials that sometimes lasted only minutes.
Iran's judiciary recently called on Swedish authorities to ensure “fair and appropriate procedures” regarding Nouri’s appeal which started in January. The verdict of the appeals court is scheduled to be announced on December 19.
The unfreezing of $6b by the United States a few months ago was widely interpreted as the cost of freeing five American-Iranian hostages that Iran had held for several years.
Floderus, who previously worked on the Afghanistan desk of the EU’s external services department, was detained on April 17, 2022, at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport while waiting to depart Iran.
He was covertly detained for over 500 days before a report by The New York Times in September brought his circumstances to public attention. .
