Yemen’s Houthis still putting up a fight

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Despite a month of U.S.led airstrikes, Yemen’s Iranbacked Houthi rebels remain capable of launching significant attacks — just this week, they seriously damaged a ship in a crucial strait and apparently downed an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars.

The continued assaults by the Houthis on shipping through the crucial Red Sea corridor — the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — against the backdrop of Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip underscore the challenges in trying to stop the guerrilla-style attacks that have seen them hold onto Yemen’s capital and much of the war-ravaged country’s north since 2014.

Meanwhile, the campaign has boosted the rebels’ standing in the Arab world, despite their own human rights abuses in a yearslong stalemated war with several of America’s allies in the region. And the longer their attacks go on, analysts warn the greater the risk that disruptions to international shipping will begin to weigh down on the global economy.

On Monday, both the Houthis and Western officials acknowledged one of the most-serious attacks on shipping launched by the rebels. The Houthis targeted the Belize-flagged bulk carrier Rubymar with two anti-ship ballistic missiles, one of which struck the vessel, the U.S. military’s Central Command said.

The Rubymar, which already had reported problems with its propulsion back in November, apparently became inoperable, forcing her crew to abandon the vessel.

Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed on Monday night that the Rubymar sank, though there was no immediate independent confirmation of that. But even if it was still afloat, the attack marked one of only a few direct, serious hits by the Houthi rebels on shipping. In late January, another direct hit by the Houthis set a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker ablaze for hours.

Meanwhile, the Houthis early on Tuesday released footage of what they described as a surface-to-air missile bringing down a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone off the coast of Hodeida, a Yemeni port city held by the Houthis on the Red Sea. The footage also included video of men dragging pieces of debris from the water onto a beach.

Images of the debris, which included writing in English and what appeared to be electrical equipment, appeared to correspond to known pieces of the Reaper, which can be used in both attack missions and surveillance flights. Central Command and the U.S. Air Force’s Mideast arm have not responded to questions from The Associated Press over the apparent downing.