Iran, the Red Sea, and the West (tm).

[Snowygerry]

This one. ?

Greek frigate 'Hydra' enters Red Sea - Naval News

The Greek frigate Hydra (F-452), a MEKO 200HN frigate, has arrived in the Red Sea to join the EU-organized operation ASPIDES

www.navalnews.com

 

[Comrade Ceasefire]

That's not itself strange, since most of the ships going through are Greek-owned (not state-owned, mind), but it'd be interesting to see what would happen if the frigate is hit.

Couldn't Greece then send another two?

 

[Kyriakos]

They are sort of needed here.

 

[Comrade Ceasefire]

They are sort of needed here.

Sorry, when it comes to Greek mythology I'm a slow Lerna.

 

[Estebonrober]

"Not west" is both a geographic and cultural reference. In my post the context was geographic, as in not centered around the Atlantic Ocean and its curious nooks and crannies. Pirates have been romanticized in the US into anti heroes such that even Disney includes them as part of its entertainment package. I do not no whether or not such a transformation has taken place in the non-western Eastern Hemisphere.

I mean our founding fathers were notorious pirates.

 

[innonimatu]

Greece did take the leadership (for what that is worth) of the Eu "mission" in the Yemen sea, and is also sending a frigate there.
That's not itself strange, since most of the ships going through are Greek-owned (not state-owned, mind), but it'd be interesting to see what would happen if the frigate is hit. Afaik the frigate sent is one of the rather worst of the fleet.

Pragmatic of Greece. Not too big a loss.

 

[Samson]

Fertilizer, huh? Any information about wether it was ammonium nitrate, or some other nitrate? Mixed or pure? Going for which port?
The yemenis seem to have good intelligence indeed.

It was sailing sailing from Saudi Arabia to Bulgaria. I heard somewhere it was quoted as "flammable fertiliser", which could be ammonium nitrate but my first thought was poo.

 

[Kyriakos]

Sorry, when it comes to Greek mythology I'm a slow Lerna.

Iirc one of the new ships (Belharra frigates) purchased from France is to be named Constantinople

 

[innonimatu]

It was sailing sailing from Saudi Arabia to Bulgaria. I heard somewhere it was quoted as "flammable fertiliser", which could be ammonium nitrate but my first thought was poo.

Poo does not get transported that way, it gets used nearer. It seems to me that the target was chosen knowing which chemicals it carried. Bulgaria, btw, has one of the few remaining ammunition industires in "europe" that didn't get totally dismantled. Has an use in it for things that go boom. If they reach port.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Crucial Red Sea data cables cut, telecoms firm says​

Several undersea communications cables in the Red Sea have been cut, affecting 25% of data traffic flowing between Asia and Europe, a telecoms company and a US official say.

Hong Kong-based HGC Global Communications said it had taken measures to reroute traffic after four of the 15 cables were recently severed.

The cause is not yet clear.

The US official said it was trying to find out whether the cables were cut deliberately or snagged by an anchor.

Last month, Yemen's internationally-recognised government warned that the Iran-backed Houthi movement might sabotage the undersea cables in addition to attacking ships in the sea.

The Houthis - who control much of western Yemen's Red Sea coast - denied last week that they had targeted cables and blamed US and British military strikes for any damage to them.

US and British forces have targeted Houthi weapons and infrastructure in response to the drone and missile attacks on merchant vessels passing through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The Houthis say their attacks are a show of support for the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

• Could the Houthis sabotage undersea cables?
• Who are the Houthis attacking Red Sea ships?

HGC Global Communications said in a statement on Monday that four submarine cables in the Red Sea - Seacom, TGN-Gulf, Asia-Africa-Europe 1 and Europe India Gateway - had been cut in a recent "incident".

An estimated 25% of traffic was affected, it added, noting that some 80% of the west-bound traffic from Asia passed through the cables.

HGC said it had taken measures to mitigate any disruptions for its clients by rerouting data to Europe through cables in mainland China and under the Pacific Ocean to the US, as well as using the remaining cables in the Red Sea.

African telecoms cable operator Seacom told the Associated Press that "initial testing indicates the affected segment lies within Yemeni maritime jurisdictions in the Southern Red Sea".

A Pentagon official confirmed to CBS News, the BBC's US partner, that undersea telecommunications cables in the Red Sea had been cut.

The official said the US was still trying to determine whether they were deliberately severed or snagged by a ship's anchor.

Last week, Israeli business website Globes reported that the same four cables running between the Saudi city of Jeddah and Djibouti had been damaged and pointed the blame at the Houthis, without providing any evidence. Sky News Arabia, which is based in the United Arab Emirates, cited unnamed sources as accusing the Houthis of "blowing up" the cables".

The Houthis' telecommunications ministry denied those reports.

The ministry said it wanted to reaffirm remarks in a recent speech by Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, who said the group did not want to put any communications cables at risk.

The decision to "prevent the passage of Israeli ships" through the Red Sea did "not apply to ships belonging to international companies licensed to carry out marine work on cables in Yemeni waters", it added.

On Monday, Telecommunications Minister Misfer al-Numair said his ministry was "ready to assist requests for permits and identify ships with the Yemeni Navy", referring to the Houthis' naval forces.

Meanwhile, the US military's Central Command said the Houthis had fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles at a Liberian-flagged, Swiss-owned container ship, MSC Sky II, in the Gulf of Aden. One of the missiles hit the vessel, causing damage but no injuries, it added.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea claimed that the ship was Israeli and that it would "continue to prevent Israeli navigation or those heading to the ports of occupied Palestine".
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68478828

 

[Klaus Hergersheimer]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/06/politics/crew-members-killed-houthi-attack/index.html

Two Filipino seafarers are among the dead after a Houthi ballistic missile struck a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden, marking the first fatal attack by the Iran-backed militant group in its ongoing assaults in the Red Sea.
At least three crew members were killed and four others injured in the attack Wednesday on the M/V True Confidence, a Barbados-flagged, Liberian-owned bulk carrier, US Central Command said in a statement. The ship has since been abandoned and coalition warships are now in the area assessing the situation, two US officials told CNN.
In a statement Thursday, the Philippine Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) announced the death of its nationals and said two other Filipino crewmen were severely injured in the attack.
The deadly strike marks a significant escalation of the Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, which began in October in response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The Houthis said in a statement that the strike was “accurate” and caused a fire to break out on the ship.
“The targeting operation came after the ship’s crew rejected warning messages from the Yemeni naval forces,” a Houthi statement said.

Oops, so much for shooing boats away by firing at them

 

[Remorseless1]

The Houthis have actually boarded several ships, harassed numerous others. I wouldn't call it shooing.

 

[Kyriakos]

The Greek space battleship Yamato, downed a couple of Houthi drones, I read.
It has its own importance, since iirc it marks the first active war action for a Greek ship since operations in WW2 (in Italy etc).

 

[Klaus Hergersheimer]

The Houthis have actually boarded several ships, harassed numerous others. I wouldn't call it shooing.

You're right. However even those like the topic creator have inferred this whole episode as being some kind of legit protest against capitalism, yet now (if not long ago), that moral ascendancy has clearly been lost...

 

[Gorbles]

Don't worry, they've got a good thirty-thousand to go before moral equivalence is reached (given the Houthis' stated intentions for their actions). If your concern truly is lives lost or otherwise negatively impacted, that is.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

US Navy aircraft carrier faces relentless battle against Houthi attacks

The BBC gets rare access to a US aircraft carrier trying to protect merchant vessels in the Red Sea.

www.bbc.com

Captain Wroe says the Houthis have posed the greatest challenge to the US Navy in recent history.

"This is the most since World War Two," he says. That was the last time the US operated in an area where they could be fired upon every day.

The tempo of operations on the aircraft carrier itself has also been unrelenting - with dozens of sorties being flown round the clock.

Up in the carrier's flight control tower, Commander George Zintac, known as the Air Boss, is having to choreograph their movements - with a jet either launching or landing in just over a minute.

He's been in the US Navy for more than 30 years, but says "this is probably the most flying I've done on a deployment - everyday we're flying a tonne".

In daylight you can see what they've been doing. On the side of each cockpit they've painted the silhouettes of the bombs they've dropped, the radar stations destroyed, and the drones they've shot down from the air. They've already fired more than 300 bombs and missiles.

Admiral Miguez says they'll stay for "as long as we're needed".

But there are limits to sustaining this level of military presence.

Unlike the Houthis, they're away from home with few creature comforts. Every meal on board is literally feeding the five thousand. The food bill on the carrier alone is $2m (£1.6m) a month.

Captain Chris Hill, the commanding officer of Ike, says "people need breaks, they need to go home".

 

[Kyriakos]

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-bombs-iran-embassy-syria-iranian-commanders-among-dead-2024-04-01/

Pretty impressive, really. Even the US has to apologize when it hits embassies. Here it is done callously, to murder foreign officials.

 

[E.man]

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-bombs-iran-embassy-syria-iranian-commanders-among-dead-2024-04-01/

Pretty impressive, really. Even the US has to apologize when it hits embassies. Here it is done callously, to murder foreign officials.

Israel bombs whoever they feel like. Doesn't seem to face any oppsition.

 

[Lexicus]

Houthis won:

US could remove Houthis from terror list in exchange for Red Sea quiet - report

The comment is in line with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's statements in November that the US would re-evaluate the designation if the Houthis ceased attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

www.jpost.com

 

[Crezth]

I'll proudly wear the "Not West" hat when the West is actively collaborating genocidal warfare in a region. Why should you sit fat and happy while helping pay for the erasure of millions of humans thousands of miles away?

Piracy has a long long history in the West, so the West(tm) thinks piracy is cool... I'd rather not see it, but then again, these tanker companies are the bottom of the barrel on so many social factors that I could care less. They do insane tax sheltering, labor law avoidance, environmental and climatological damage to the tens of billions per year and are just generally owned and operated by what I would call legalized global pirates. So, get wrecked. I do not feel bad for them. I am deeply concerned about the expansion of violence in the region...

If I was Iran, I would be plotting something... that is not something I look forward to...

Still a great post