Tag: Houthis

Iran and U.S. Held Secret Talks on Proxy Attacks and Cease-Fire

Iran and the United States held secret, indirect talks in Oman in January, addressing the escalating threat posed to Red Sea shipping by the Houthis in Yemen, as well as the attacks on American bases by Iran-backed militias in Iraq, according to Iranian and U.S. officials familiar with the discussions. The secret talks were held […]

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Inside America’s Shadow War With Iran

It’s often been said that the most dangerous hot spot in the world is the waterway between Taiwan and mainland China, where the Chinese Navy and Air Force flex their muscles every day to try to intimidate Taiwan — while the U.S. Navy patrols nearby. I wonder. There is actually a stable balance of deterrence […]

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Red Sea Cable Damage Highlights Mideast Conflict’s Broader Threat

Mysterious damage to vital communications cables under the Red Sea has raised concerns about whether the conflict in the Middle East is now beginning to threaten the global internet. Just as the waters off Yemen hold crucial shipping lanes, they are also a critical location for undersea cables that carry email and other digital traffic […]

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Damage to Cables Under Red Sea Highlights Mideast Conflict’s Broader Threat

Mysterious damage to vital communications cables under the Red Sea has raised concerns about whether the conflict in the Middle East is now beginning to threaten the global internet. Just as the waters off Yemen hold crucial shipping lanes, they are also a critical location for undersea cables that carry email and other digital traffic […]

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U.S. and British Warplanes Again Strike Houthi-Linked Targets in Yemen

The United States and Britain carried out another round of large-scale military strikes Saturday against multiple sites in Yemen controlled by Houthi militants, U.S. officials said. The strikes were intended to degrade the Iran-backed militants’ ability to attack ships in sea lanes that are critical for global trade, a campaign they have carried out for […]

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Houthis Say They Shot Down a U.S. Drone Off Yemen

The Pentagon is investigating the cause of a crash of an American military surveillance drone off the coast of Yemen on Monday morning, two U.S. officials said. The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, confirmed that the drone, an MQ-9 Reaper, fell out of the sky. Iranian-backed Houthi militants said […]

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U.S. Says it Struck Houthi Targets, Including Underwater Drone, in Yemen

The United States struck five Houthi military targets, including an undersea drone, in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Saturday, the U.S. military announced on Sunday. The use of the underwater drone is believed to have been the first time that Iran-backed Houthis had employed such a weapon since they began their campaign against ships in […]

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Israel Was Behind Attacks on Major Gas Pipelines in Iran, Officials Say

Israel carried out covert attacks on two major gas pipelines inside Iran this week, disrupting the flow of heat and cooking gas to provinces with millions of people, according to two Western officials and a military strategist affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. The strikes represent a notable shift in the shadow war that Israel […]

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U.S. Designates the Houthis a Terror Group

The State Department on Friday designated the Houthis as a terrorist organization, following through on a mid-January warning to crack down on the Yemen-based militant group. The action officially labels the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group, a step that gives the United States new powers to crack down on the Iran-backed Houthis’ […]

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U.S. Strike in Baghdad Kills Iranian-Backed Militia Commander

A U.S. retaliatory strike in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday killed a senior leader of a militia that U.S. officials blame for recent attacks on American personnel, the Pentagon said, following up on President Biden’s promise that the response to a slew of attacks by Shiite militias would continue. The Pentagon said the man was […]

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Hamas Gives ‘Positive’ Reply to Hostage and Cease-Fire Plan in Gaza

Hamas has answered a proposal that could halt fighting in the Gaza Strip, release the remaining hostages there and allow more aid to reach desperate Palestinians, U.S. and Qatari leaders said on Tuesday, offering a hint of wary optimism after four brutal months of war. But no deal has been struck, and it is not […]

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Houthi Attacks and U.S.-Led Strikes Dash Hopes for Quick Yemen Peace Deal

For nine years, Yemen was torn by a war that erupted when the Houthis, a Yemeni militia supported by Iran, ousted the government and took control of the country’s northwest. Alarmed by an Iran-linked group taking control across the border, Saudi Arabia assembled a military coalition and launched a bombing campaign, backed by American weapons […]

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U.S. Strikes Hit Most of Targets in Iraq and Syria, Pentagon Says

American warplanes destroyed or severely damaged most of the Iranian and militia targets they struck in Syria and Iraq on Friday, according to the Pentagon, the first major salvos in what President Biden and his aides have said will be a sustained campaign. Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said on Monday […]

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U.S. Strikes Iranian-Backed Targets for Third Day in a Row

The United States launched scores of strikes across the Middle East over the weekend as Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken set out for the region to push forward negotiations to secure the release of Israelis still held hostage in Gaza and get more humanitarian aid into the battered enclave. The latest strike came Sunday […]

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U.S. Strikes in Yemen, Syria and Iraq: A Timeline

The United States has led a major wave of retaliatory strikes in the Middle East, hitting scores of targets belonging to Iranian-backed armed groups since Friday. The strikes are a sharp escalation of hostilities in the region, one that President Biden had sought to avoid since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began […]

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U.S. and U.K. Launch Heavy Strikes on Houthi Sites in Yemen

The United States and Britain carried out large-scale military strikes on Saturday against multiple sites in Yemen controlled by Houthi militants, according to a statement from the two countries and six allies, as the Biden administration continued its reprisal campaign in the Middle East targeting Iran-backed militias. The attacks against 36 Houthi targets at 13 […]

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Take the Houthi Support for Palestinian Liberation Seriously

Similarly, belittling Ansar Allah’s Palestine solidarity misrepresents it as some form of shrewd opportunism—a way to appeal to the mass pro-Palestine sentiment in Yemen and across the Arab world. Support for the Palestinian cause is, in fact, foundational to Ansar Allah’s movement. Regardless of the positive impact its actions have had domestically, its pro-Palestine position […]

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You Can’t Bomb the Houthis Into Not Supporting Palestine

Similarly, belittling Ansar Allah’s Palestine solidarity misrepresents it as some form of shrewd opportunism—a way to appeal to the mass pro-Palestine sentiment in Yemen and across the Arab world. Support for the Palestinian cause is, in fact, foundational to Ansar Allah’s movement. Regardless of the positive impact its actions have had domestically, its pro-Palestine position […]

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Lawmakers Want Biden to Ask Permission Before Bombing Yemen Indiscriminately

Many Democrats support either eliminating Social Security’s cap on taxable wages, expanding the types of compensation subject to Social Security payroll taxes—fringe benefits like health insurance, for example—or increasing payroll taxes. “The problem has been that, over time, the amount of revenue that is subject to [Social Security payroll] tax has been declining, partially because […]

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Shipping Costs Soar in Wake of Red Sea Attacks

For about two months, a barrage of missile and drone attacks in the Red Sea by Houthi militants has posed a difficult choice to shippers using the Suez Canal: risk an airborne strike and pay sharply higher insurance rates, or forgo the canal and take the longer route around Africa, snarling schedules and entailing higher […]

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Houthis’ Propaganda Is Going Global

Soon after Yemen’s Houthi militia hijacked a commercial ship in the Red Sea, taking it and its 25-member crew hostage, the armed group used the vessel to record a music video. In the slick production, called “Axis of Jihad,” a drone camera pans over the hulking ship. Then a famous Houthi poet appears on the […]

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How the Houthi Militia in Yemen Became a Nimble U.S. Foe

For years, the scrappy Iran-backed Yemeni rebels known as the Houthis did such a good job of bedeviling American partners in the Middle East that Pentagon war planners started copying some of their tactics. Noting that the Houthis had managed to weaponize commercial radar systems that are commonly available in boating stores and make them […]

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U.S. Strikes 2 More Houthi Targets in Yemen

The United States struck two Houthi anti-ship missiles in Yemen, the military’s Central Command said on Tuesday, resuming what U.S. officials said were short-notice attacks against the Iran-backed militia’s imminent threats to merchant vessels, as well as Navy ships in the Red Sea and nearby waters. The U.S. strikes — the ninth in two weeks […]

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U.S. Expands Attacks on Houthis With New Strikes in Yemen

The United States and Britain carried out large-scale military strikes on Monday against about a dozen sites in Yemen controlled by Houthi militants, according to two senior U.S. officials. The strikes signaled that the Biden administration intends to wage a sustained and, at least for now, open-ended campaign against the Iran-backed group that has disrupted […]

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US Declares Two Missing Navy SEALs As Dead in Somalia

The U.S. military said on Sunday that it had declared two Navy SEALs dead after they went missing 10 days ago during an operation at sea to intercept weapons from Iran headed to Houthi fighters. They are among the first known U.S. fatalities in Washington’s campaign against the Houthis, who have launched dozens of attacks […]

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Iran’s Leaders Say They Don’t Want a War. Should We Believe Them?

The war in Gaza has now gone where many feared it would, expanding into conflict in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the Red Sea. With America’s repeated strikes against the Houthis in Yemen this month, fears of a larger regional conflagration are steadily growing. Present in each of those arenas is Iran — and the question […]

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As U.S. and Militias Engage, White House Worries About a Tipping Point

Mr. Biden’s team is trying to manage all those flashpoints at the same time it is trying to find a way to press Israel to scale back its war against Hamas to a more surgical operation with fewer civilian casualties. So far, according to Gaza health officials, more than 25,000 people have been killed, some […]

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Israeli Strike in Syria Kills Iranian Officials and U.S. Troops Injured in Iraq

Iran accused Israel of launching an airstrike on the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Saturday that killed senior Iranian military figures, the latest in a series of Israeli attacks on officials from Iran and two of its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah. Iran vowed to retaliate, raising fears of even deeper regional turmoil rippling out from the […]

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Why Iran Is the Common Link in Conflicts From Gaza to Pakistan

Israel and Gaza. Yemen and the Red Sea. Lebanon, Syria, Iraq — and now Pakistan, too. At every flashpoint in a set of conflicts spanning 1,800 miles and involving a hodgepodge of unpredictable armed actors and interests, there’s been a common thread: Iran. Tehran has left its imprint with its behind-the-scenes-backing of combatants in places […]

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What the Houthis Really Want

Vivian Nereim contributed reporting. The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle […]

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