Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, the Houthis have increased their number of spectacular attacks. Over the past two weeks, the Shiite Islamist movement has already attempted to attack three commercial ships, before carrying out a drone attack on Sunday December 10 against the French frigate Languedoc. This frigate itself shot down a drone launched by Yemen’s Houthis in the Red Sea this Monday, December 11. This threatened a Norwegian oil tanker, which had already been hit by a cruise missile fired from areas controlled by Yemeni rebels without causing any casualties.
The Houthis increase their operations in the Red Sea
© / The Express
“This attack is part of a context of increasing attacks and acts of piracy in the Red Sea” by the Houthis, “which constitute a very worrying increase in attacks on freedom of navigation in this area”, according to the French Ministry of Affairs foreign. The rebels had warned that they were ready to “target” any ship that did not heed its ban on heading towards Israeli ports.
Allied with Iran, the Yemeni rebel movement is trying to take advantage of geopolitical tensions to exert influence in the region: at the beginning of November, it claimed responsibility for a salvo of ballistic missiles, intercepted by Israel.