The US and a host of other nations are creating a new force to protect ships transiting the Red Sea that have come under attack by drones and ballistic missiles fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. "This is an international challenge that demands collective action," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement released just after midnight in Bahrain, per the AP. "Therefore today I am announcing the establishment of Operation Prosperity Guardian, an important new multinational security initiative." The seriousness of the attacks—including two more on Monday—has led multiple shipping companies to order their ships to hold in place and not enter the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until the security situation can be addressed.
Under the new mission, the military ships will not necessarily escort a specific vessel, but will be positioned to provide umbrella protection to as many as possible at a given time, a senior military official told reporters who are traveling with Austin in the region. The United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles, and Spain have joined the new maritime mission. Some of those countries will conduct joint patrols while others provide intelligence support in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. About 400 commercial vessels are transiting the southern Red Sea, an area roughly the size of Washington, DC, to Boston, at any given time.
Mohammed Abdel-Salam, the Houthis' spokesman, challenged the coalition, saying the Iranian-backed rebels would continue targeting Israel-linked vessels off Yemen. "The American-formed coalition is to protect Israel and militarize the sea without any justification, and will not stop Yemen from continuing its legitimate operations in support of Gaza," he wrote on X. Meanwhile, the shipping giant Maersk announced that it will re-route ships that have been paused for days outside the strait and Red Sea, and send them around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope instead—a much longer passage. Maersk said it welcomed the international security effort, but at the present time, the much longer route would provide "more predictable outcomes" for its customers.
(More
Red Sea stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
