A ship caught fire Saturday in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen after being struck by a projectile, the British military said, with one report suggesting its crew was preparing to abandon the vessel.
The incident comes as Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been attacking ships through the Red Sea corridor. However, the rebels did not immediately claim the attack, though it can take them hours or even days to do so.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center issued an alert about the vessel, describing the incident as taking place some 210 kilometers (130 miles) east of Aden.
“A vessel has been hit by an unknown projectile, resulting with a fire,” the UKMTO said. “Authorities are investigating.”
The maritime security firm Ambrey described the ship as a Cameroon-flagged tanker that was “en route from Sohar, Oman, to Djibouti.” It said radio traffic suggested the crew was preparing to abandon ship and a search-and-rescue effort was underway.
Details offered about the ship appeared to correspond to the Falcon, a Cameroon-flagged tanker that carries liquefied petroleum gas. The Falcon previously had been identified by United Against Nuclear Iran, a New York-based pressure group, as operating allegedly in an Iranian “ghost fleet” of ships moving their oil products in the high seas despite international sanctions. The ship’s owners and operators, listed as being in India, could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Houthis have gained international prominence during the Israel-Hamas war over their attacks on shipping and Israel, which they said were aimed at forcing Israel to stop fighting. Since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, no attacks have been claimed by the rebel group.
The Houthi campaign against shipping has killed at least nine mariners and seen four ships sunk. It upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which about $1 trillion of goods passed each year before the war. The rebels’ most recent attack hit the Dutch-flagged cargo ship Minervagracht on Sept. 29, killing one crew member on board and wounding another.
Meanwhile, the Houthis have increasingly threatened Saudi Arabia and taken dozens of workers at United Nations agencies and other aid groups as prisoners, alleging without evidence they were spies — something fiercely denied by the world body and others.
Beirut, Lebanon — Israel expanded its airstrikes on Iran-backed groups in Lebanon and beyond over the weekend, launching raids thousands of miles away on Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The Israeli attack on Houthi targets in the Yemeni port city of Hodeida came after months of U.S. and British strikes against the group – a joint response to the rebels’ regular rocket, drone and missile attacks on international military and commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
The Israeli strikes also came, however, amid growing concern that Israel’s nearly-year-long war with the Houthi’s ideological allies Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon could spiral into a broad regional conflict, drawing in Iran and even the U.S. to back their respective allies.
Israel hit the Houthis just a couple days after it assassinated Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah with a massive airstrike on Friday.
After that strike, Israeli forces continued pounding purported Hezbollah and Hamas targets across Lebanon’s south and east all weekend, but the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, the Hezbollah stronghold where Nasrallah was killed along with another senior commander and two other high-ranking members of the group, has borne the brunt.
A man mourns people killed in an Israeli strike in the village of Ain Deleb, near the southern Lebanon city of Sidon, Sept. 30, 2024.
Aziz Taher/REUTERS
The well-armed group’s surviving deputy leader Naim Qassem vowed Monday that Hezbollah would carry on – despite its near decapitation via airstrikes, and before that exploding pagers and walkie talkies – “facing the Israeli enemy to support Gaza and Palestine.”
He accused the U.S. of offering Israel “limitless support” for Israel to carry out “massacres” in Lebanon and Gaza, and then claimed Hezbollah had fired even more weapons at Israel, and deep into the country, since Nasrallah was killed.
But Hezbollah’s incessant drone and rocket fire is virtually wiped out by Israel’s advanced air defenses before it reaches any targets. There have been civilians injured over the last couple weeks, but in Lebanon’s capital, entire residential buildings have been flattened.
CBS News went to see the aftermath of one Israeli strike Sunday on the edge of Dahiyeh. A five-storey-building was reduced to rubble. It was still smoldering as another massive boom reverberated in the distance, underscoring the unpredictable security situation for Lebanese civilians as Israel carries on, determined, it says, to push Hezbollah many miles away from its border to stop the cross-border attacks.
Getty/iStockphoto
Israel has assassinated at least five Hezbollah commanders over the past week alone, and 19 in just a few months — dealing a major blow to the U.S.-designated terrorist group. Hezbollah ramped up its attacks on Israel a day after Israeli forces launched their first airstrikes on its Hamas allies, in immediate response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre.
Hezbollah has acknowledged losing more than 30 operatives in recent weeks, including many of its senior leaders, but the ferocity and pace of the Israeli strikes in Lebanon has also taken a massive toll on Lebanese civilians. At least 1,000 people have been killed in just two weeks — 105 on Sunday alone.
According to Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati, the strikes have displaced almost 1 million people from their homes, most of them fleeing southern Lebanon for Beirut of other locations further north.
Some of those displaced families — including many with young children — have come to Beirut’s iconic Blue Mosque, desperate to find safety. The place of worship has become a refuge for people who told CBS News they’d rather sleep in the courtyard’s surrounding the building, out in the open, than go back to their neighborhoods amid Israel’s bombardment.
Samar al-Attrash is among those who have found sanctuary outside the mosque. She fled her home in Dahiyeh with her husband and their three children, and little more than the clothes on their backs.
CBS News correspondent Imtiaz Tyab (right) speaks with Samar al-Attrash as she sits with her husband and their three young children on the steps of Beirut’s Blue Mosque, to which they fled seeking shelter amid Israeli bombing near their home in the southern suburb of Dahiyeh, Sept, 28, 2024.
CBS News
“We have nowhere to go to but here,” the mother told us. “We are very scared and we can’t go back to Dahiyeh at all until the situation gets better.”
“I told my kids it’s scary and that we can’t go home,” she said. “I’m only telling [them] a little at a time so I don’t traumatize them.”
President Biden reiterated his warning on Sunday that an all-out regional war must be avoided, but as he spoke, CBS News correspondent Chris Livesay and his team reported that tanks and armored vehicles were massing on the Israeli side of the country’s northern border with Lebanon.
A photo provided by the Israel Defense Forces shows Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in black, meeting Israeli forces near the country’s northern border with Lebanon, Sept. 30, 2024.
IDF handout
On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant paid another visit to Israeli troops waiting for orders near the border, telling them killing Nasrallah was, “an important step, but it is not the final one.”
“We will employ all of our capabilities,” Gallant told the Israeli troops, “and this includes you.”
It was the latest clear signal that Israel is preparing for some kind of ground operation in Lebanon — a move that has the potential to spark fighting even deadlier than anything seen since Oct. 7.
Despite the body blows dealt by Israel, Hezbollah’s deputy leader claimed Monday that the group’s “military capabilities are solid,” that it “will continue along the same path” it has been on for months – and that it is ready for a war with Israel.
Imtiaz Tyab is a CBS News correspondent based in London and reports for all platforms, including the “CBS Evening News,” “CBS Mornings,” “CBS Sunday Morning” and CBS News 24/7. He has extensive experience reporting from major global flashpoints, including the Middle East and the war on terror.
U.S. Navy fighter pilots came home to Virginia feeling relieved Friday after months of shooting down Houthi-launched missiles and drones off Yemen’s coast, in the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II.
F/A-18 Super Hornets swooped over waiting families in a low formation before landing at their base in Virginia Beach. Dressed in green flight suits, the aviators embraced women in summer dresses and kids carrying American flags. Some handed red roses to their wives and daughters.
“We’re going to go sit down on the couch, and we’re going to try and make up for nine months of lost time,” Cmdr. Jaime Moreno said while hugging his two young daughters, ages 2 and 4, and kissing his wife, Lynn.
Clearing the emotion from his voice, Moreno said he couldn’t be prouder of his team and “everything that the last nine months have entailed.”
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier strike group, which includes three other warships, was protecting merchant vessels and allied warships under fire in a vital Red Sea corridor that leads to the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean.
“Honestly, it was completely unbelievable,” Lt. Cmdr. Charity Somma told CBS News. “I don’t think anybody on board that carrier strike group was expecting that to happen.”
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have been attacking ships linked to Israel, the United States or Britain in what they say is a campaign to support the militant group Hamas in its war against Israel, though they frequently have targeted ships with no clear links to Israel or its supporters, imperiling shipping in a key route for global trade.
The U.S. and its allies have been fighting back: One round of fire in January saw F/A-18s from the Eisenhower and other ships shoot down 18 drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles and a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis.
U.S. Navy sailors have seen incoming Houthi-launched missiles seconds before they are destroyed by their ship’s defensive systems. Officials in the Pentagon have been talking about how to care for the sailors when they return home, including counseling and treatment for possible post-traumatic stress.
Cmdr. Benjamin Orloff, a Navy pilot, told reporters in Virginia Beach on Friday that most of the sailors, including him, weren’t used to being fired on, given the nation’s previous military engagements in recent decades.
“It was incredibly different,” Orloff said. “And I’ll be honest, it was a little traumatizing for the group. It’s something that we don’t think about a lot until you’re presented with it.”
But at the same time, Orloff said sailors responded with grit and resilience.
“What’s impressive is how all those sailors turned right around —and given the threat, given that stress— continued to do their jobs beyond reproach,” Orloff said, adding that it was “one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.”
When asked by CBS News if what they faced could be described as the most intense naval combat since Word World War II, Orloff called the description “pretty apt.”
“The close range that we were to the enemy, the fact that we were employing self-defense strikes,” Orloff said. “This was not long-range projection. This was…right in our face.”
Navy officials said the carrier strike group fired more than 400 air-to-surface missiles and 55 air-to-air missiles.
“We put a bomb down for every air surface engagement, and then a silhouette of airborne target for every air-to-air engagement that we had,” Orloff said.
The carrier strike group had left Virginia in mid-October. Its deployment was extended twice because of the importance of having a powerful carrier strike group, which can launch fighter jets at a moment’s notice, in the volatile region.
The months of fighting and extensions placed extra stress on roughly 7,000 sailors and their families.
Caitlyn Jeronimus, whose husband Keith is a Navy lieutenant commander and pilot, said she initially thought this deployment would be relatively easy, involving some exercises with other NATO countries. But then Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, and plans changed.
“It was going to be, if you could call it, a fun deployment where he’s going to get lots of ports to visit,” Jeronimus said.
She said the Eisenhower’s plans continued to change, which was exacerbated by the knowledge that there were “people who want to harm the ship.”
Jeronimus leaned on counselors provided by the Navy.
Her two children, aged 5 and 8, were old enough to understand “that daddy has been gone for a long time,” she said. “It was stressful.”
Several squadrons of U.S. fighter jets made a hero’s homecoming Friday, arriving in Virginia after a tense nine-month deployment in the Middle East. They were part of a strike group with the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier confronting Iranian-backed Houthi militants. Charlie D’Agata has details.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
WASHINGTON—As mounting campus protests and arrests over the Israel-Hamas war threatened his fragile electoral coalition, advisors to President Joe Biden assured him Friday that this would blow over once all Gazans were dead. “Just lie low, let a few thousand more bombs drop on densely populated areas, and you’re golden, Mr. President,” said senior communications advisor Anita Dunn, promising the depleted Biden that in a matter of months, there would hopefully be no one left to protest for in the besieged Palestinian territory. “I know things might seem bleak now, sir, but all you need to do is hold the course giving Israel billions in military aid, and this will most likely all be a distant memory by November. After that, it’s smooth sailing ahead. What are the activists going to be angry about then? A bunch of rubble and mass graves?” Dunn went on to stress that with any luck, there soon wouldn’t be any student protesters left alive, either.
Biden Announces Nation Can Stay Up Till 9:30 Tonight
Dubai, United Arab Emirates — Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their ongoing attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways, which the group claims it is carrying out in response to Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unnamed official but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine.
However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the United States and its allies, which have so far been able to down any missile or bomb-carrying drone that comes near their warships in Mideast waters.
Meanwhile, Iran and the U.S. reportedly held indirect talks in Oman, the first in months amid their long-simmering tensions over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program and attacks by its proxies.
A truck carries a missile said by officials to be an Iranian-made Fattah hypersonic ballistic missile during an annual military parade in Tehran, Sept. 22, 2023.
AFP/Getty
Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor, claims to have a hypersonic missile and is widely accused of arming the rebels with the missiles they now use. Adding a hypersonic missile to their arsenal could pose a more-formidable challenge to the air defense systems employed by America and its allies, including Israel.
“The group’s missile forces have successfully tested a missile that is capable of reaching speeds of up to Mach 8 and runs on solid fuel,” a military official close to the Houthis said, according to the RIA report. The Houthis “intend to begin manufacturing it for use during attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as well as against targets in Israel.”
Mach 8 is eight times the speed of sound.
Russia has maintained close ties with Iran, relying on Iranian bomb-carrying drones to target Ukraine. Russian state media, particularly its Arabic-language services, have closely reported on Yemen’s yearslong civil war that pits the Iran-backed Houthis against forces of the internationally backed Yemeni government, supported by a Saudi-led coalition.
Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds higher than Mach 5, could pose crucial challenges to missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability.
The danger from a hypersonic missile depends on how maneuverable it is. Ballistic missiles fly on a trajectory in which anti-missile systems like the U.S.-made Patriot can anticipate their path and intercept them. The more irregular the missile’s flight path, such as a hypersonic missile with the ability to change directions, the more difficult it becomes to intercept.
China is believed to be pursuing the weapons, as is America. Russia claims it has already used them on the battlefield in Ukraine. However, speed and maneuverability isn’t a guarantee the missile will successfully strike a target. Ukraine’s air force in May said it shot down a Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missile with a Patriot battery.
In Yemen, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the Houthi rebels’ secretive supreme leader, boasted about the rebels’ weapons efforts at the end of February.
“We have surprises that the enemies do not expect at all,” he warned at the time.
A week ago, he similarly warned: “What is coming is greater.”
“The enemy … will see the level of achievements of strategic importance that place our country in its capabilities among the limited and numbered countries in this world,” al-Houthi said, without elaborating.
After seizing Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014, the Houthis ransacked government arsenals, which held Soviet-era Scud missiles and other arms.
As the Saudi-led coalition entered Yemen’s conflict in 2015, the Houthis arsenal was increasingly targeted. Soon — and despite Yemen having no indigenous missile manufacturing infrastructure — newer missiles made their way into rebel hands.
Iran long has denied arming the Houthis, likely because of a yearslong United Nations arms embargo on the rebels. However, the U.S. and its allies have seized multiple arms shipments bound for the rebels in Mideast waters. Weapons experts as well have tied Houthi arms seized on the battlefield back to Iran.
Iran also now claims to have a hypersonic weapon. In June, Iran unveiled its Fattah, or “Conqueror” in Farsi, missile, which it described as being a hypersonic. It described another as being in development.
Iran’s mission to the U.N. did not respond to a request for comment Thursday, nor did the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, which patrols Mideast waterways.
Israel’s military — which also has come under Houthi fire since the war against Hamas erupted on Oct. 7 when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage — declined to comment.
Also Thursday, The Financial Times reported that the U.S. and Iran held indirect talks in Oman in January “to end attacks on ships in the Red Sea.” The last known round of such talks had come last May.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency indirectly acknowledged the talks but insisted they were “merely limited to negotiations on lifting anti-Iran sanctions.”
The U.S. State Department did not immediately acknowledge the talks or comment.
The Houthis have attacked ships since November, saying they want to force Israel to end the war in Gaza, which has seen over 31,000 Palestinians killed in the besieged strip. The ships attacked, however, have increasingly had little or no connection to Israel, the U.S. or other nations involved in the war.
But the assaults have raised the profile of the Houthis, whose Zaydi people ruled a 1,000-year kingdom in Yemen up until 1962. Adding a new weapon to their arsenal would put more pressure on Israel after a cease-fire deal failed to take hold in Gaza before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Earlier in March, a Houthi missile struck a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden, killing three of its crew members and forcing survivors to abandon the vessel. It marked their first fatal attack by the Houthis on shipping.
Other recent Houthi actions include an attack last month on a cargo ship carrying fertilizer, the Rubymar, which later sank after drifting for several days, and the downing of an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars.
A new suspected Houthi attack targeted a ship in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday, but missed the vessel and caused no damage, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.
Fabian Hinz, a missile expert and research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said he wouldn’t be surprised if Iran transferred a new, hypersonic weapon to the Houthis. However, the question is how maneuverable such a weapon would be at hypersonic speeds and whether it could hit moving targets, like ships in the Red Sea.
“I wouldn’t exclude the possibility that the Houthis have some system that has some maneuvering capability to some extent,” Hinz said. “It is also possible for the Iranians to transfer new stuff for the Houthis to test it.”
The U.S. military and its allies shot down a flurry of at least 28 drones in the Red Sea fired by Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen early Saturday, the Pentagon said.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
The U.S. military and its allies shot down a flurry of at least 28 drones in the Red Sea fired by Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen early Saturday, the Pentagon said.
The drones were fired over an approximately four-hour period from about 4 a.m. to 8:20 a.m. local time, U.S. Central Command reported on social media.
There were no reports of commercial or naval vessels damaged in the assault, CENTCOM said.
U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps posted video to social media early Saturday showing what he said was the British warship HMS Richmond using missiles to shoot down two Houthi drones.
“The UK and our allies will continue to take the action necessary to save lives and protect freedom of navigation,” Shapps wrote.
Houthi militants, who occupy vast swaths of Yemen, have since November launched dozens of attacks on ships in the Red Sea in a show of solidarity with the militant group Hamas in its war with Israel. The attacks have significantly disrupted international shipping routes.
A Houthi attack Wednesday killed at least three members of the crew on the Liberian-owned commercial ship True Confidence, according to defense officials, marking the first fatalities from one of the Houthi attacks since they started in November.
And last weekend, a British owned-ship which had been struck by a Houthi missile in February sank in the Red Sea, making it the first vessel to be destroyed by the Houthis since they began their attacks. The ship’s sinking was also believed to have severed three undersea telecommunication cables.
In response, the U.S. and U.K., with the support of coalition forces, have launched four rounds of airstrikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen dating back to mid-January.
The Biden administration earlier this year declared the Houthis to be a “specially designated global terrorist group,” reversing part of an earlier decision by the U.S. State Department in February 2021 that removed that designation.
Faris Tanyos is a news editor for CBSNews.com, where he writes and edits stories and tracks breaking news. He previously worked as a digital news producer at several local news stations up and down the West Coast.
John Dickerson reports on a deadly Houthi attack in the Red Sea, Nikki Haley’s departure from the 2024 race, and why a bipartisan bill to ban TikTok in the U.S. is picking up support.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
A recent election in Iran installed more hard-liners in parliament, but that may not be what people want. Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, joins CBS News to assess the regime and its ambitions.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
A commercial ship which was struck last month by a missile launched by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militants sank in the Red Sea, officials said Saturday. It marks the first ship to be destroyed by the Houthis since they began their attacks on commercial and naval vessels in the Red Sea.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
The U.S. and U.K., with the support of its allies, launched a fourth round of retaliatory airstrikes Saturday on Iranian-backed Houthi targets in Yemen.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
The U.S. and U.K together launched “more than a dozen” airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen Saturday, two U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News. This is the fourth round of joint coalition strikes since Jan. 11 to pressure the Houthis to stop attacking commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
The strikes hit 18 Houthi targets across eight locations in Yemen, according to a joint statement released by a coalition of nations involved in Saturday’s actions — which included the militaries of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand.
The strikes targeted “Houthi underground weapons storage facilities, missile storage facilities, one-way attack unmanned aerial systems, air defense systems, radars, and a helicopter,” the statement read.
In the past few weeks, the U.S. has also taken more than 30 self-defense strikes against Houthi weapons that were “prepared to launch” to conduct attacks on commercial or U.S. Navy ships, according to U.S. Central Command.
Despite the barrage of strikes, the Houthis have continued to launch missiles and drones at ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. As of this week, U.S. defense officials said there had been at least 60 Houthi attacks since November 19.
“We never said that we were taking every single capability that the Houthis have off the map, but every single day that we conduct a strike, we are degrading them further,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said on Tuesday.
“And so I think the [Defense] Secretary has confidence that the more we continue to do this, the Houthis are going to – they are already seeing the effects,” Singh said.
The Houthis have linked their attacks to the war between Israel and Hamas, pledging to keep targeting ships aiding Israel’s war, but U.S. officials say that many of the ships the Houthis have targeted have no connection to Israel or the conflict in Gaza.
“The Houthis’ now more than 45 attacks on commercial and naval vessels since mid-November constitute a threat to the global economy, as well as regional security and stability, and demand an international response,” Saturday’s joint statement read. “Our coalition of likeminded countries remains committed to protecting freedom of navigation and international commerce and holding the Houthis accountable for their illegal and unjustifiable attacks on commercial shipping and naval vessels.”
Yemen’s Houthi followers carry their rifles as they participate in a rally and parade staged against Israel, the U.S., U.K. and their allies on Feb. 22, 2024, in Sana’a, Yemen.
John Dickerson reports on the first moon landing attempt since 1972, charges against four people suspected of transporting Iranian-made weapons, and a widespread AT&T outage affecting cell service.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates — A suspected missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels set a ship ablaze in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday as Israel intercepted what appeared to be another Houthi attack near the port city of Eilat, authorities said. The attacks come as the Iran-backed rebels escalate their assaults over Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The attack Thursday in the Gulf of Aden saw two missiles fired, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. It said the unnamed ship was ablaze, without elaborating.
Ship-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press identified the vessel as a Palau-flagged cargo ship named Islander. It had been coming from Thailand bound for Egypt and previously sent out messages saying “SYRIAN CREW ON BOARD” to potentially avoid being targeted by the Houthis.
Getty/iStockphoto
“The missile attack lead to a fire onboard and coalition military assets were responding to the incident,” the private security firm Ambrey said.
The ship’s Liberian-listed owners could not be immediately reached for comment.
Israel intercepts missile headed for Red Sea port
Sirens sounded early Thursday morning over Eilat, followed by videos posted online of what appeared to be an interception in the sky overhead. The Israeli military later said the interception was carried out by its Arrow missile defense system.
Israel did not identify what the fire was, nor where it came from. However, the Arrow system intercepts long-range ballistic missiles with a warhead designed to destroy targets while they are in space.
The system “successfully intercepted a launch which was identified in the area of the Red Sea and was en route to Israel,” the Israeli military said. “The target did not cross into Israeli territory and did not pose a threat to civilians.”
The Houthis did not immediately claim either attack. They typically acknowledge assaults they conduct hours afterward.
Eilat, on the Red Sea, is a key port city of Israel. On Oct. 31, Houthis first claimed a missile-and-drone barrage targeting the city. The rebels have claimed other attacks targeting Eilat, which have caused no damage in the city.
Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters over Israel’s war against Hamas. They have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for trade among Asia, the Mideast and Europe. Those vessels have included at least one with cargo for Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor.
Houthi attacks continue despite U.S.-led strikes in Yemen
Despite a month of U.S.-led airstrikes, Houthi rebels remain capable of launching significant attacks. This week, they seriously damaged a ship in a crucial strait and shot down an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars.
A U.S. defense official confirmed to CBS News that a Houthi surface to air missile downed a Reaper drone, adding that U.S. aircraft and coalition warships shot down 10 one-way suicide drones on Monday evening, as the U.S. carried out more strikes in Yemen, this time targeting a surface to air missile launch site and another drone that was being prepared for launch.
Over the weekend, CENTCOM said it had also carried out a self-defense strike in Yemen against a Houthi unmanned underwater vessel, the first time the U.S. has reported the Shiite Muslim rebels using an underwater drone since attacks in the Red Sea region started in October.
The Houthis have vowed to continue their attacks until Israel stops its combat operations in the Gaza Strip, which have enraged the wider Arab world and seen the Houthis gain international recognition.
On Wednesday, ships in the Red Sea off the Houthi-held port city of Hodeida in Yemen reported seeing an explosion, though all vessels in the area were said to be safe, the UKTMO said. The UKMTO earlier reported heavy drone activity in the area.
The U.S. State Department criticized “the reckless and indiscriminate attacks on civilian cargo ships by the Houthis” that have delayed humanitarian aid including food and medicine bound for Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen. That includes the Sea Champion, a ship carrying corn and other aid to both Aden and Hodeida.
CBS News
“Contrary to what the Houthis may attempt to claim, their attacks do nothing to help the Palestinians,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. “Their actions are not bringing a single morsel of assistance or food to the Palestinian people.”
Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of CENTCOM, told “60 Minutes” that despite the ongoing attacks in the vital shipping lanes, it’s clear the U.S. military is degrading the Houthis’ capability.
“Every single day they attempt to attack us, we’re eliminating and disrupting them in ways that are meaningful, and I do believe have an impact,” he told Norah O’Donnell.
Cooper said he has an endgame in mind, which is “the restoration of the free flow of commerce and safe navigation in the Southern Red Sea,” but he didn’t say when that could be expected.
Iranian support has been critical for the Houthis as they bombard commercial ships in the Red Sea, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, said in a recent “60 Minutes” interview.
The Houthis, a Shia militia from Yemen, have targeted at least 45 ships in recent months, disrupting crucial international shipping corridors, even as the U.S. Navy has moved into the Red Sea to push back against the group. They’re being aided by members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, Cooper said.
“The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is inside Yemen, and they are serving side by side with the Houthis, advising them and providing target information,” Cooper said.
That support goes back a decade, Cooper said, with Iran providing supplies to the Houthis for years.
“They’re resupplying them as we sit here right now at sea,” Cooper said. “We know this is happening. They’re advising them, and they’re providing target information. This is crystal clear.”
On Thursday, U.S. Central Command announced that on Jan. 28, a U.S. Coast Guard ship in the Arabian Sea seized weapons originating in Iran and bound for Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. The boarding team found more than 200 packages containing medium-range ballistic missile components, explosives, unmanned underwater/surface vehicle components, military-grade communication and network equipment, anti-tank guided missile launcher assemblies and other military components.
“This is yet another example of Iran’s malign activity in the region,” Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, CENTCOM commander, said in a statement. “Their continued supply of advanced conventional weapons to the Houthis is in direct violation of international law and continues to undermine the safety of international shipping and the free flow of commerce.”
Houthi attacks on ships began after war broke out in Israel and Gaza, even though President Biden had warned Iran and its allies to stay out of the conflict.
The Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital in 2014 and now control about one third of the country, initially stated they would only shoot at ships linked to Israel, but the Houthis have fired at ships tied to dozens of nations. The U.S. government in January re-designated the Houthi movement as a terrorist organization as the group stepped up attacks in the Red Sea.
Amid the ongoing attacks, Norah O’Donnell headed to the Red Sea. She was the first journalist to report from the southern Red Sea in the air, on the water, and inside a U.S. military command center. Her full report on the Red Sea crisis is set to air on 60 Minutes on Feb. 18, 2024.
The U.S. is preparing for more strikes against Iran-backed militias, which continue to target U.S. troops, as well as military and commercial vessels in the Red Sea. A drone attack on Sunday hit a base in Syria used by U.S. troops. Holly Williams reports.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
U.S. and U.K. military forces late Saturday night launched joint airstrikes on Iranian-backed Houthi targets in Yemen, officials announced.
The airstrikes come one day after the U.S. launched retaliatory airstrikes on more than 85 targets of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its affiliated militias in Syria and Iraq in response to last weekend’s drone strike on a Jordanian base which killed three U.S. service members.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that “this collective action sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks on international shipping and naval vessels.”
The militaries of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand also provided support, according to a joint statement released on behalf of all nations involved in Saturday’s actions.
The strikes struck 36 Houthi targets at 13 locations in Yemen “in response to the Houthis’ continued attacks against international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea,” the statement said. The strikes hit Houthi weapons storage facilities, air defense, missile and radar systems.
“Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea but let us reiterate our warning to Houthi leadership: we will not hesitate to continue to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways in the face of continued threats,” the statement said.
Saturday night’s airstrikes also came in addition to self-defense strikes earlier Saturday evening on six Houthi anti-ship cruise missiles that were being prepared for launch against ships in the Red Sea, U.S. Central Command said.
A U.S. defense official told CBS News that, since Friday’s U.S. strikes in Iraq and Syria, there has been one attack on U.S. forces. In that attack, multiple rockets targeted U.S. forces based at the Mission Support Site Euphrates in Syria, but there were no reports of injuries or damage.
There have been 167 attacks by Iranian-backed groups on U.S. forces in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since Oct 17 of last year.
Saturday night’s assault is the third time since Jan. 11 that the U.S. and U.K. have taken part in joint airstrikes after Yemen-based Houthi militants in November began launching dozens of attacks on commercial and naval vessels in the Red Sea. The Houthis, who control large swaths of Yemen, launched their attacks in an act of solidarity with the Hamas militants who invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 people and as retaliation against Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which officials in the Hamas-run enclave say has killed more than 26,000 people. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between the deaths of civilians and fighters. Israeli Defense Forces claims it has killed about 9,000 Hamas fighters, and that it has tried to limit civilian deaths.
The Houthi attacks have had a drastic impact on international shipping routes. In December, BP said it was halting oil shipments through the Red Sea, pushing oil prices higher in recent weeks, while furniture giant Ikea warned of possible product shortages. Carnival this week announced it was rerouting 12 of its cruise ships to avoid the Red Sea.
Last month, the Biden administration declared the Houthis to be a “specially designated global terrorist group,” reversing part of an earlier decision by the State Department in February 2021 that had removed that designation.
A soldier of the Iran-backed Houthi militia takes part in a demonstration against the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 2, 2024, in Sanaa, Yemen.
Osamah Yahya/picture alliance via Getty Images
— David Martin, Eleanor Watson and Kate Gibson contributed to this report.
Faris Tanyos is a news editor for CBSNews.com, where he writes and edits stories and tracks breaking news. He previously worked as a digital news producer at several local news stations up and down the West Coast.
It’s unclear whether Friday’s U.S. strikes on Iranian-backed militias will deter Iran from escalating the violence in the Middle East. Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas has the entire region on a knife’s edge. Margaret Brennan examines how the tense situation could play out.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
U.S. forces conducted airstrikes Friday in Iraq and Syria on more than 85 targets of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its affiliated militias. The strikes were in retaliation for a drone attack that killed three U.S. soldiers on a base in Jordan last weekend. Nancy Cordes has the latest.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
