The Houthis had a busy day. Crazy rascals.
The situation in Yemen’s the furthest thing from funny. Even if things might’ve stabilized at the margins, the country’s still home to one of the worst humanitarian crises on the planet. The Houthis are part and parcel of the attendant misery and acute human suffering, but for reasons I’ve never been able to pin down, their adventures have an unmistakable air of slapstick. It’s almost farce. “Miscreants” often feels more apt that “militants.”
Don’t confuse any of that for naiveté. You won’t catch me trying to steer a ship through the Red Sea or going sightseeing in Sana’a. Theirs (the Houthis’) is a murderous brand of mischief. Observing slapstick at close range is always dangerous. You might get some pie meringue on your shirt, for example. But observing Houthi slapstick up close is a good way to catch some shrapnel.
On Monday, they carried out what appeared to be the most successful attack yet on global shipping lanes, nearly sinking a Belize-flagged, British-owned cargo ship with a pair of ballistic missiles. The crew abandoned the Rubymar after radioing for help. They were rescued by a nearby warship and a fellow commercial vessel, US Central Command said.
Houthi spokesman Yahya Sarea (that’s him up top) recapped the incident in a high-pitched, televised statement. The Houthis fired “a number of missiles,” hitting the ship which was “at risk of sinking,” an unblinking Sarea yelled at the camera. Amusingly, he said the Houthis “took care during the operation to ensure the safe evacuation of the ship’s crew.” Maybe it’s just me, but something about firing ballistic missiles at ships seems inconsistent with concern for the safety of mariners.
That wasn’t the end of it. The Houthis also claimed to have downed an MQ-9 Reaper somewhere off the coast of Al Hudaydah. If that’s true — and apparently it is — it’s problematic. For one thing, that’s a $30 million piece of equipment. I’ve never viewed any invoices (“Due immediately. Make checks payable to Mr. Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader”), but it seems unlikely the Houthis spent that much to shoot it down.
It’s not about the money, of course. The US has plenty of that being the sole legal issuer of genuine US dollars. Rather, it’s the optics. Specifically: They’re bad. MQ-9 Reapers are supposed to incinerate power players like Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, not get shot down by “a bunch goat herders,” as Tom Cotton indelicately dubbed the Houthis last month.
In the same statement, Yahya Sarea said the group used a “suitable missile” for the job. They like the word “suitable.” They use it all the time. The drone, he went on, was “carrying out hostile missions on behalf of the Zionist entity.”
Officials who spoke to The New York Times confirmed that a Reaper “fell out of the sky” on Monday. This would be the second drone the Houthis downed since the war in Gaza began in October, and if you ask Yahya Sarea, it may not be the last. “Yemeni armed forces will not hesitate to take more military measures in defense of our beloved Yemen,” he shrieked, expressionless.
Hijinks. Houthi hijinks.
