Israel-Iran Proxy War Expands to Yemen
The fight has now expanded to a third front.
WSJ (“Israel Strikes Houthi-Controlled Port City in Yemen“):
The Israeli military for the first time staged a direct airstrike against Houthi rebels in Yemen, a day after the Iran-backed militant group launched a drone attack in Tel Aviv that killed one person.
Israel said its F-15 jet fighters struck several targets in the Houthi-controlled port city of Hodeidah, which set fuel tanks ablaze and damaged the city’s power plant, a Houthi official said. Health authorities said several people had died and more than 80 were wounded. Israel’s military didn’t respond to a request for comment on casualties.
Israel’s military said it downed a surface-to-surface missile launched by Yemen on Sunday, using its advanced Arrow 3 aerial defense system. The Houthis later claimed responsibility for launching ballistic missiles toward Israel on Sunday.
Israel said it acted Saturday in retribution for hundreds of Houthi attacks against the country since October, including the one in the heart of Israel’s commercial capital on Friday. That drone strike marked the first time the Houthi militia successfully hit Tel Aviv nine months into Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas militants in Gaza that the Houthis say they are protesting. Israel’s aerial defense array has intercepted most of the Houthi attacks.
Saturday’s attack in Yemen, more than 1,000 miles from Israel, is one of the furthest strikes that Israel’s air force has conducted, said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman.
“From the beginning of the war, I made it clear that Israel would harm anyone who harmed us,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday immediately following the strikes. The fresh attack “makes it clear to our enemies that there is no place that the long arm of the State of Israel can’t reach,” he said.
Israeli and U.S. defense officials said the U.S. was notified before the operation. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke twice with his Israeli counterpart about the hostilities since Friday, said an Israeli defense official.
An Israeli military official said the airstrikes were focused on “dual-use facilities” within the port, which the official called “the main supply route for the transfer of Iranian weapons to Yemen.” Such transfers would violate a nearly decadelong United Nations arms embargo against the group. Tehran denies arming the Houthis despite ample evidence to the contrary. The Houthis likely used a modified version of the Iranian-made Samad drone in its Friday attack, the Israeli military said.
NYT (“Israeli Jets Bomb Sites in Yemen Linked to Iran-Backed Houthis“) adds:
Israeli fighter jets bombed a port in Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi militia on Saturday in retaliation for the group’s deadly drone attack in Tel Aviv a day earlier. It was the first time Israel has publicly struck the group following months of escalating Houthi attacks.
[…]
Admiral Hagari said the operation was “one of the farthest and longest ever conducted by the Israeli air force.” He called the port a major supply stop for Iran to funnel weapons to its Houthi allies in Yemen, who have fired over 200 missiles and drones at Israel over the past several months.
But the Hodeidah port is also a crucial point for all goods, including desperately needed food and oil, to enter northwestern Yemen, much of which is controlled by the Houthis; at least two-thirds of the impoverished country’s population lives under the group’s rule.
[…]
On Friday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for launching a long-range drone that struck Tel Aviv, killing one Israeli and wounding several others. In addition to the hundreds of missiles and drones they have fired at Israel, the Houthis have menaced ships passing through the Red Sea to try to blockade the Israeli port of Eilat.
Israel is already fighting a war against Hamas on its southern front in Gaza and trading fire incessantly with Hezbollah in Lebanon to the north — two groups also backed by Iran. Its response on Saturday appeared calibrated not to incite a full-blown war on a third front.
The Israeli attack in Yemen was nonetheless a striking moment in a war that has already seen Israel exchange fire with Iran and its allies across the Middle East. But the Israeli military said Saturday that the Israeli public was advised to continue daily activities, indicating it did not expect an imminent escalation.
WaPo (“Israel intercepts missile from Yemen after airstrikes on Houthi port“):
Israeli forces intercepted a surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on social media Sunday.
The missile did not cross into Israeli territory, but “warnings of rocket and missile fire” were issued out of concern over shrapnel that could fall on Israelis, the IDF said.
Although it was not immediately clear who had launched the missile, a Houthi military spokesman had promised retaliation for Israel’s airstrikes Saturday on Hodeida, a port city in Yemen controlled by the the rebel group. Spokesman Yahya Saree said the Israeli raids struck the port, a power station and a fuel tank.
Essentially, then, Iran is sponsoring a war on Israel on at least three fronts (Gaza, Lebanon, and Yemen) while trying to keep it from escalating into a full-scale direct conflict. Thus far, stretched thin by the fight in Gaza, the Netanyahu government has played along. I don’t see how that’s sustainable in the longer term.
I don’t think it needs to be sustainable over the long term. It only needs to be sustainable long enough for Netanyahu to find a suitable exit strategy for himself and a way to keep the Zionists in relatively uninterrupted power. As soon as those two goals can be accomplished, he’ll hand over the keys to the next radical.
Not convinced the Houthis are under direct control of Iran. Seem to be pelting ships indiscriminately, including a couple of ships carrying Russia cargo recently. As Steve Martin might put it: “They are some wild and crazy guys!”
@dazedandconfused: Proxies are known to act in ways that don’t align with the interests of their sponsors. But Iran is supplying them with their weapons and money.
The fight isn’t expanding to a third front – the third front has been there for months. It’s just been mostly the US and other allies doing the fighting.
@James Joyner:
I view it as plausible the Iranians are not at all happy about this behavior, indiscriminate shooting at shipping is not their style, but Iran wants to keep the Houthis as a proxy for other reasons, particularly their being a thorn in the Saudi’s side. We certainly have had a few independent minded “proxies” of our own, anyway.
It’s still plausible the Houthis are doing this for internal political reasons. They may seek an outside enemy which might rally the rest of Yemen around their flag, the pretense of a worthy cause.
@dazedandconfused: Yup. The classic dilemma of proxy warfare.
@dazedandconfused:
There is very little possibility of the Houthi rallying the rest of Yemen behind them against an outside enemy.
The main noise you will hear from Aden if the Houthi are stomped will be wild cheering.
They Houthi loathed by the southern and coastal sunni Yemenis, and for good reasons.
Such as their proclivity for enforcing slavery.
The motivation of the Ansar is primarily fairly standard mix of anti-Zionism and anti-semitism, crazed conspiracy theories, and radical Shi’ism. And secondarily a desire to conform to the attitudes of their Iranian sponsors.
This whole mess is the consequence of the 2022 ceasefire, which was driven by US policy, when the Saudi-supported Yemen forces had a good chance of taking the coast and confining the Houthi to the northern highlands.
One of the more stupid US decisions of recent years.