Houthi rebels threaten to choke off Suez canal with boat bombs
Rebels in Yemen are packing boats with explosives in an attempt to shut one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and halt Saudi Arabia’s military offensive against them, according to the Saudi-led coalition.
Houthi fighters, backed by Iran, have loaded a remote-controlled vessel with bombs and set it on a course to strike and blow up a Saudi oil tanker in a stretch of water that effectively controls access to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea from the Indian Ocean.
The attack was thwarted by the coalition fighting in Yemen last Sunday, days before the Shia rebels vowed to bring shipping to a halt if the Gulf alliance did not stop its advance towards their coastal strongholds.
Colonel Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the Gulf alliance, told The Times that coalition forces destroyed the Houthi boat before it could strike a Saudi oil tanker near the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah.
He said the attack had been part of the rebel group’s plan to target the Bab alMandeb Strait. The 20km-wide choke point, which lies just south of Hodeidah, is the way into the Red Sea.
‘‘The Houthis are threatening international trade and marine navigation in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb Strait. There is an imminent threat every day,’’ Maliki said from Riyadh.
‘‘Their attempt to attack the oil tanker is very serious, it is a hostile act. There is no doubt that Hodeidah port is now a base from which they are launching terrorist attacks.’’
Sunday’s assault was carried out by a commercial vessel remotely operated by the Houthis from a support ship sailing in formation behind it, Maliki said.
The Saudi-led coalition believes that the rebel group also has the capability to lay floating and submerged mines and to send divers to attach mines to ships.
On average, 60 commercial and passenger vessels and nearly four million barrels of oil travel every day through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Its closure would force the world’s shipping traffic to bypass the Suez Canal and travel around Africa, damaging global trade.
The Houthis have said that they will halt shipping traffic in the area if Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies continue their advance on Hodeidah. The coastal city, home to Yemen’s main port and its supply lifeline, has been under Houthi control since the rebels swept to power in 2015, starting the civil war in Yemen.
‘‘If the aggressors keep pushing towards Hodeidah, and if the political solution hits a wall, there are some strategic choices that will be taken as a no-return point, including blocking the international navigation in the Red Sea,’’ Saleh al-Samad, a senior member of the Houthis’ political council, said.
‘‘Their ships pass by our waters while our people starve,’’ he added.
The Shia rebels have already been accused of targeting Emirati, Saudi Arabian and American ships many times over the past two years. A missile fired from Houthi territory narrowly missed
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the USS Mason, a guided missile destroyer, in October 2016, a week after a UAE vessel came under attack. This prompted the US Navy and the Royal Navy to deploy destroyers to protect merchant vessels near the strait.
Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have been bombing Yemen since 2015 to reinstate President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was ousted by the Houthis.
A partial blockade of Hodeidah is said to be the main reason nearly 8 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine.
– The Times