A new task force will patrol the waters of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden – connected by the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait – near Yemen to target weapons shipments to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who regularly target Saudi Arabia and the UAE with drone and missile attacks, the US Navy announced on Wednesday.
The new multinational task force will also target people and drugs trafficking operating in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab, and the Gulf of Aden.
Stressing the patrol area of the new task force as strategically important waters that warrant the US attention, the commander of the US Fifth Fleet, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, said that as part of the 34-nation Combined Maritime Forces he also commands, the new task force will consist of two to eight warships.
Combined Maritime Forces already have three other task forces conducting anti-piracy and smuggling patrols in nearby waters.
According to a US official – speaking on the condition of anonymity – the waters between Yemen, Somalia, and Djibouti are well-known paths for weapons smuggling destined for the Houthis although Iran also has long been accused of smuggling weapons to the Houthis despite denying the charges.
The US Navy’s effort comes in light of the series of Houthi missile and drone attacks on the two Gulf countries, which increasingly see the US as weakening its commitment to the region despite already having received additional American military assistance.
The UK and France are also supplying weapons and intelligence to Saudi Arabia.
It also comes amid a two-month UN-brokered truce in the nearly seven-year Yemen war, which came into effect this month and according to which, Saudi Arabia must follow fuel ships into the Red Sea port of Hodeida Riyadh previously maintained blocked, claiming it’s necessary to prevent the weapons smuggling.
Be the first to comment