US helicopters sink three Houthi boats in the Red Sea, Pentagon says

A clash between Iran-backed Houthi fighters who attacked a commercial cargo ship and US Navy helicopters responding to the ship’s distress call ended Sunday morning with the deaths of all crew members on three Houthi boats, the Pentagon said, a sharp escalation from violence at a time when the White House is considering direct attacks on Iranian allies in the Middle East.

It appeared to be the first time that U.S. and allied forces patrolling the Red Sea, a crucial waterway for oil and other shipments, have engaged in a deadly firefight with the Houthis since their attacks on ships began in October, after the outbreak of the war. between Israel and Hamas. President Biden has said he wants to avoid direct military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen to prevent a conflict in the Middle East that is already threatening to spread throughout the region.

But in the battle that broke out Sunday morning, Marine forces had little choice, at least according to the United States Central Command report.

The Houthis had launched an attack on the cargo ship, the Maersk Hangzhou, a Singapore-flagged container ship, and tried to board it. As the ship’s security forces tried to hold the attackers at bay, helicopters from the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower arrived to chase them away and the Houthis opened fire on them.

“The small boats fired at the US helicopters with crew-served weapons and small arms,” Central Command said a statement. “The US Navy helicopters returned fire in self-defense, sinking three of the four small boats and killing the crew.” The Central Command did not say how many had been killed, but later on Sunday the Houthis said in a statement that 10 of their fighters were dead.

“The American enemy is bearing the consequences of this crime,” they said in a statement, and “its military movements in the Red Sea to protect Israeli ships will not deter the Houthis” from their religious, moral and humanitarian duty to fulfill’. support and assistance to those who have been wronged in Palestine and Gaza.”

The incident now poses a difficult issue for Mr. Biden and his administration. Senior officials said they must decide whether to attack Houthi missile and drone sites in Yemen or wait to see if the Houthis withdraw after the sinking of three of their fast boats and the deaths of their fighters.

Ten days ago, the government released intelligence showing that Iranian paramilitary groups were coordinating the Houthi attacks and providing targeted information on commercial shipping transiting the waterway and the Suez Canal. Israel is highly dependent on shipping traffic in the Red Sea.

In response to the attacks, the United States established a multinational naval task force to protect commercial ships in both the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The effort, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian, includes about 20 countries so far, including Britain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the Seychelles and Spain. Most Arab states have refused to join, with the exception of the small Gulf state of Bahrain, which hosts a major US naval base, home to the Fifth Fleet, and which recently signed a security deal with the United States.

Senior Pentagon commanders have urged more aggressive action against the string of Iranian allies attacking U.S. forces, including in Syria and Iraq. Last week, the United States attacked a base in Iraq used by Kataib Hezbollah after an attack that wounded three American troops, leaving one in critical condition.

But the most pressing problem appears to be in the Red Sea, where the Houthis have launched dozens of rocket and drone attacks on commercial ships in response to Israel’s war against another Iranian-backed group, Hamas.

While US forces have attacked missile and drone launch sites in Syria and Iraq, Mr Biden has been reluctant to issue the same order against Houthi bases in Yemen. This caution is motivated by many considerations, but chief among them is that Saudi Arabia wants to go beyond the costly war in Yemen. Escalating the conflict with the Houthis, who control the capital Sana and much of the north of the country, could derail a difficultly negotiated ceasefire.

“Everyone is looking for a way to de-escalate tensions,” Tim Lenderking, the US special envoy to Yemen, said in an interview earlier this month. “The idea is not to embroil the region in a broader war, but rather to use the tools at our disposal to encourage the Houthis to reverse their reckless behavior.”

At least, that was the strategy until Sunday.

While the United States had shot down Houthi missiles and drones, deployed warships and established the task force to protect shipping, the one thing it didn’t seem to do was engage directly with the Iran-backed militia. That self-imposed moratorium ended with the collision to protect the Maersk ship.

Pentagon officials have drawn up detailed plans for attacking missile and drone bases in Yemen, and some of the facilities appear to be holding fast boats of the kind used to attack the Maersk container ship. But there is some concern that such attacks could play a role in Iran’s plan.

“I have doubts about what strikes would do,” said Adam Clements, a former U.S. military attache to Yemen. “The Iran-Houthi relationship benefits enormously from conflict, so why create more?”

But several retired U.S. officers with experience in the Gulf region say it is essential to restore U.S. deterrence, a view echoed by many in the Pentagon. In 2016, the US attacked three Houthi forces with Tomahawk cruise missiles after the Houthis fired on naval and commercial ships. The Houthis’ attacks stopped.

The situation today is different. The Houthis have vowed to continue attacks until sufficient food and medicine are allowed into Gaza, where a humanitarian disaster has unfolded since the Israeli attack began. The attack followed the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, which Israeli officials said killed 1,200 people.

So far, the administration has insisted that assembling the international naval task force in the Red Sea is the best way to isolate the Houthis, and limit the group’s ability to portray itself as fighting the United States or Israel. decreases.

The countries participating – and many on the sidelines – have both a commercial and security interest in the initiative. Maersk had just resumed shipping before the attack on Hangzhou; it has now suspended shipments again.

Yemeni political analysts, and the Houthis themselves, have dismissed the task force as an ineffective exercise that will do little to deter the Houthis, who say they yearn for a direct confrontation with the United States.

The Pentagon has another concern: deterring attacks on American troops.

“The bigger problem is that the U.S. has also been accepting continued Houthi missile and drone attacks as normal” in the Red Sea since early October, said Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, a retired Fifth Fleet commander.

“If we do not respond when U.S. forces are attacked in any way, we risk the lives of U.S. sailors and Marines if a missile were to get past U.S. defenses,” he said. “It also sets a new precedent that attacking a U.S. ship carries a low risk of retaliation and, as we have seen, invites more attacks from the Houthis.”