Houthis hijack ship in the Red Sea
Houthis hijack ship in the Red SeaScreenshot

Iran is “very directly involved” in ship attacks that Yemen’s Houthi rebels have carried out during Israel’s war against Hamas, the US Navy’s top Mideast commander told The Associated Press on Monday.

Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the Navy’s 5th Fleet, stopped short of saying Tehran directed individual attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

However, Cooper acknowledged that attacks associated with Iran have expanded from previously threatening just the Persian Gulf and its Strait of Hormuz into waters across the wider Middle East.

“Clearly, the Houthi actions, probably in terms of their attacks on merchant shipping, are the most significant that we’ve seen in two generations,” he told AP, adding, “The facts simply are that they’re attacking the international community; thus, the international response I think you’ve seen.”

The Navy commander acknowledged the threat from Iran’s proxies and that its distribution of weapons extended from the Red Sea out to the far reaches of the Indian Ocean.

“What I’ll say is Iran is clearly funding, they’re resourcing, they are supplying and they’re providing training,” Cooper told AP. “They’re obviously very directly involved. There’s no secret there.”

The Houthis have upped their attacks in the region since the October 7 Hamas attack against Israel.

On January 11, US and British strikes targeted the Houthis, after the Biden administration and its allies warned the Iran-backed group it would bear the consequences of its attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Two days before the US and British strikes, the two armies shot down 21 drones and missiles fired by the Houthis towards the Red Sea, in what was one of the biggest attacks by the group to date.

On Monday, the US and Britain again conducted strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. Two US officials told CNN that the United States has named the ongoing operation to target Houthi assets in Yemen “Operation Poseidon Archer”.