Attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea by the Houthis are growing in number, range, and sophistication, despite continued destruction of their assets by coalition forces.
On Monday, the US Central Command said it had destroyed a Houthi radar station because it presented an imminent threat to US, coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region.
Attacks of this nature by coalition forces have been ongoing for more than six months, yet the threat from the Houthi movement appears to be growing rather than diminishing with attacks increasing, becoming more sophisticated and the area of Houthi operations spreading.
Senior intelligence analyst at Dryad Global, Scarlett Suarez, believes that NATO retaliatory strikes have been largely ineffective, and that the Houthis are winning the propaganda war.
According to Suarez, the Houthis have most likely co-located weapons caches, manufacturing and training facilities in the centre of civilian population centres to deter any coalition attacks.
Suarez said, “Some arms imports take place via dhows; however, the Houthis main supply lines are land-based. The Houthis have developed a robust infrastructure of arms manufacturing within Yemen, only relying on Iran for certain components.”
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