Preparations in Yemen to Attack American Battleships in Red Sea with Russian Missiles

The Ansar Allah (Houthi) group has obtained 300 Russian-made naval missiles, military sources told Sheba Intelligence on Monday. The sources did not specify how these missiles arrived, whether directly from their Russian exporter or through smuggling with support from Iran.

The information says that the Houthi group has the intention to target American military warships in the Red Sea. Gunboats, boobytrapped and self-driving boats, and naval mines were lately transported from workshops in the Bajil area in Al-Hudaydah to the ports and islands under the group's control to carry out naval attacks, according to the sources. Moreover, Samad and Waeed drones were also deployed at Al-Hudaydah Airport.

The sources indicated that communications systems and jamming radars arrived in Houthi-controlled areas through smuggling from the Oman-Yemen border and were transported to Sanaa and Al-Hudaydah, where the Houthis fear strikes by the multinational coalition forces targeting their military capabilities.

In the same vein, the Houthis are escalating their military movements in Shabwah as they attempt to take over to ensure control over some nearby oil fields. They also seek control of the oil and gas export pipeline connecting the Safer oil production facility in Marib to the Balhaf facility in Shabwah, where the export ports are located.

This escalation came after the Houthis prepared a new army called the Popular Flood Army, whose mission appears to be expanding the group's areas of control in the east and south of Yemen, according to Yemeni political observers.

On Saturday, a Houthi drone launched was shot down in self-defense by a U.S. ship in the southern Red Sea in the vicinity of several commercial vessels, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.

Houthis say their operations are aimed at supporting Palestinians in Gaza, which has been bombed and blockaded since October 2023.

A senior U.S. official was quoted saying the attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi group in Yemen against vessels in the Red Sea do not help the people in Gaza. He urged Yemeni parties to avoid dragging their country into a broader regional conflict through such escalatory behavior.

Mahdi Al-Mashat, the Houthi-appointed president, said during a meeting with security and defense officials on Saturday the American attack on the group's boats and the killing of ten of their members on December 31 "will not pass without a strong response and [the Americans] will pay the price in an unprecedented way and will bear the consequences as a result of their foolishness."