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U.S. Struggles to Deter Houthi Threat to Global Trade

(The Hill) Brad Dress - After half a year of conflict, the U.S. has failed to deter the Houthi rebels from attacking merchant ships in the Red Sea as the Yemeni fighters continue to sink commercial boats and disrupt global trade. Repeated U.S. bombardments on Houthi positions have done little to stop the Iran-backed group that has made more than 190 drone and missile attacks since late October. The Yemeni fighters have sunk or heavily damaged at least four commercial vessels, along with hijacking one, and have killed four commercial sailors. The Houthis have also kidnapped dozens of UN relief workers in the past few months. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Wednesday that "We're doing everything we can to try to degrade their capabilities, but they're still getting supplied. They're still getting resourced by Iran." Bryan Clark, a senior fellow and director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at Hudson Institute, said the U.S. could take out assembly and distribution centers rather than the main strategy of counterattacking at launch sites, but that raises the risk of hitting civilians. "What it means is the threat never really goes away, and you're just constantly in this game of defense." The Navy is also typically firing a $4 million surface-to-air missile to take down far cheaper Houthi drones.
2024-07-02 00:00:00
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