Crew Abandons Cargo Ship After Houthi Attack; US MQ-9 Reaper Downed By Rebels

https://www.zerohedge.com/geop...reaper-downed-rebels

Attacks on Red Sea shipping from Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis escalated overnight when missiles hit a commercial vessel and forced the crew to evacuate. There are also reports a US drone was knocked out of the sky by an anti-air missile.

Bloomberg reports missiles hit the engine room of "Rubymar," a Belize-flagged cargo ship sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Rubymar reported severe damage after "an explosion in close proximity to the vessel," the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center reported.

"Military authorities report crew have abandoned the vessel," UKMTO said, adding, "Vessel at anchor and all crew are safe."

This is the first instance the crew of a commercial vessel has been forced to evacuate due to damage sustained by rebel attacks.

Yahya Sare'e, the Houthis' spokesperson, warned in a statement that Rubymar is "now at risk of potentially sinking."

"The ship suffered catastrophic damages and came to a complete halt," Sare'e continued.

He also said Yemeni air defenses shot down a US General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drone in the region "with a suitable missile while it was carrying out hostile missions against our country."

more at link

It's high time to go medieval on their asses.

JHC on a Popsicle stick! Why in the F are there not smoking holes somewhere in Iran and Yemen. Oh....there's a pussy currently occupying the White House and is a marionette controlled by Onumbnutz. I forgot....

Remember, if it were up to crypt keeper Joe, Osama bin Laden would still be alive today.

Largely positive piece by 60-min.
Nice to see the destroyer captain get-in on growing-out his deployment 'stauche

The rest of the world needs to go escort their own ships.

quote:

Originally posted by ScreamingCockatoo:
The rest of the world needs to go escort their own ships.

Yes indeed.
European Red Sea Naval Task Force Set To Launch Monday

Pentagon Confirms $32M Drone Downed Off Yemen, Same Day UK Tanker Destroyed

https://www.zerohedge.com/geop...reaper-downed-rebels

One day the Houthi are going to simply overwhelm some EU, UK, or US naval vessel’s anti-air capability with a massive strike a lá 07 October’s missile barrage that oversaturated Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile capabilities.

Then it will be interesting to see what happens, as that moves from acts of piracy into full-on declared war.

I believe the Houthis are obtaining their intel in real time from two Iranian vessels in the Gulf. There have been a number of articles naming the ships.

Iran is aware that the world knows what these vessels do but keep them flying the Iranian flag and declared that attacking them would be an act of war.

There already is one against the US but Iran. Turn both into coral reefs.

Stomping these assholes into a mudhole is military action I could support. We only lack the political will to do it, not professional expertise.

quote:

Originally posted by Flashlightboy:
I believe the Houthis are obtaining their intel in real time from two Iranian vessels in the Gulf. There have been a number of articles naming the ships.

Iran is aware that the world knows what these vessels do but keep them flying the Iranian flag and declared that attacking them would be an act of war.

There already is one against the US but Iran. Turn both into coral reefs.

U.S. conducted cyberattack on suspected Iranian spy ship

quote:

The covert operation was intended to inhibit the ship’s ability to share intelligence with Houthi rebels who have been attacking cargo ships in the Red Sea.

The U.S. recently conducted a cyberattack against an Iranian military ship that had been collecting intelligence on cargo vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, according to three U.S. officials.

The cyberattack, which occurred more than a week ago, was part of the Biden administration’s response to the drone attack by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan and wounded dozens of others late last month, the officials said.

...

^^^^^^^

That's interesting. Did we target a single ship and leave the other one functioning? Did our efforts even work? Did the Houthis obtain intel from another source?

The ships are slow and move about as fast as a glacier but shooting down our drone? That's a little higher skill set.

It won't be long before a houtiniiranian missle hits one of our warships. That's when I suppose uncle joe will get real, err.. uh... mad, followed by a another we're getting more tough than we were last week speech by Lloyd Austin.

Cyberattack? How trendy! How about a good old fashioned Mark 48 ADCAP?

Another UK Ship On Fire Near Yemen As Sea Becomes Littered With Disabled Tankers

https://www.zerohedge.com/geop...red-disabled-tankers

The last several days have witnessed well over half a dozen attacks or attempted attacks by Houthis on foreign vessels and tankers in the Red Sea. For example the US military confirmed Tuesday that two US-owned tankers were struck the day prior. Such attacks are now coming several times a day.

On Thursday the Pentagon said its coalition ships in the Red Sea intercepted six more drones over waters off Yemen. This came after another UK-owned ship was struck, and is reportedly burning and immobile some 70 nautical miles southeast of Aden.

A new United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency alert said the British-owned, Palau-flagged ship was hit by two missiles while en route from Thailand to Egypt.

Increasingly, waters off Yemen are being littered with disabled and sinking tankers, as the saga of the Belize-flagged, British-registered Rubymar has shown. Earlier in the week it was hit by Houthi fire and the crew abandoned ship.

There are reports that the vessel's operators are currently trying to tow the ship to Djibouti, and that it remains partially below water, the engine room having suffered severe damage.

BBC wrote of one image widely circulating that it is "said to be from Tuesday and shows a vessel still above water. It is down by the stern, but has not sunk. Although the ship's name is not visible, all of its characteristics match those of the Rubymar."



Based on the ratcheting rate of these attacks, expect more such images of other ships to emerge in the coming weeks and months, as the war in Gaza rages on.

Meanwhile, the Houthis have issued a new alert, formalizing a ban on all foreign vessels' passage (presumably excluding Russian, Chinese, and Iranian ships of course). According to the Thursday notification:

The Houthis’ communication, the first to the shipping industry outlining a formalized ban, came in the form of two notices from the Houthis’ newly-dubbed Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center sent to shipping insurers and firms.

Ships that are wholly or partially owned by Israeli individuals or entities and Israel-flagged vessels, or are owned by US or British individuals or entities, or sailing under their flags, are banned from the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea, Thursday’s notices said.

"The Humanitarian Operations Center was established in Sanaa to coordinate the safe and peaceful passage of ships and vessels that have no connection to Israel," a Houthi official told Reuters.



more at link

Houthi Missile Hits Swiss-Owned Container Ship Near Aden

https://www.zerohedge.com/geop...ainer-ship-near-aden

US Central Command posted on social media platform X that MSC Sky II, a container ship operated by MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co., was damaged in a missile attack about 90 miles southeast of the Yemeni city of Aden.

On Mar. 4, at approximately 2:15 a.m. (Sanaa time), Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists fired an anti-ship ballistic missile from Yemen into the southern Red Sea. The missile impacted the water with no reported damage or injuries to commercial or US Navy ships.

Between the hours of 3:50 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. (Sanaa time), Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles from Yemen into the Gulf of Aden at M/V MSC SKY II, a Liberian-flagged, Swiss-owned container vessel. One of the missiles impacted the vessel, causing damage. Initial reports indicate there were no injuries; the ship did not request assistance and continued on its way.

At 8 p.m. (Sanaa time), CENTCOM forces conducted self-defense strikes against two anti-ship cruise missiles that presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region. These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for merchant and US Navy vessels.

If they just keep getting re-supplied after we bomb, how long will it be before we bomb the port facilities?

If you had a neighbor like this, their house would mysteriously burn down.

I realize Biden is a POS, but I never thought it would be anything this bad.

We need to burn them out of existence, and move on.

Didn’t we take care of some shit like this a while back, even with a Democrat president? I seem to remember something about “To the shores of Tripoli”.