Analysis | Helicopter-borne Houthi attack on Galaxy Leader cargo ship raises risks in crucial Red Sea
- Iran-backed Houthis seized cargo ship on Sunday in the southern Red Sea, describing it as Israeli-owned
- Attack raises fears that tensions over the Israel-Gaza war were playing out on a new maritime front
While Tehran has denied aiding the Yemen rebel group in launching their attack Sunday, the targeted ship before the assault passed by an American-sanctioned Iranian cargo vessel suspected as serving as a forward spying base in the Red Sea.
The rebels, dressed commando-style in bulletproof vests carrying assault rifles, covered each other and moved in military formation before quickly seizing control of the bridge of the Galaxy Leader.
While their body-camera footage serves as a propaganda coup to bolster their own position in Yemen amid some protests against their rule, it also signals a new maritime front has opened in a region long focused on the Persian Gulf and its narrow mouth at the Strait of Hormuz.
It also puts new pressure on commercial shippers travelling through those waters, threatens to increase insurance costs that will get passed onto consumers and likely further stretches the US Navy as it tries to serve as the region’s security guarantor.