Free Republic

Iraq's government was racing Saturday to contain the fallout after local Iran-backed militias were accused of attacking and shuttering a key Saudi pipeline. Though an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias in Iraq denied their involvement, Iraq's government confirmed the attacks had originated from its territory. The government pledged to investigate and dismissed a military commander. The country is under mounting pressure to prevent local militias from aiding other Iran proxy groups across the region. The Iraqi government has set a Sept. 30 deadline for non-state groups to disarm, but several of the most powerful militias have said they will not...

ADEN/DUBAI, Sept 12 - Saudi Arabia has shut down its East-West pipeline after the vital oil conduit came under aerial attack in the widening Middle East war. The world’s largest crude oil exporter temporarily closed the pipeline after a drone attack that both Baghdad and Riyadh said had originated in Iraq, where Iranian-backed militias operate. Iraq dismissed a military commander on Saturday in response to the attack. The 1,200-kilometre (745-mile) pipeline running across the Arabian Peninsula had helped Saudi Arabia to bypass a shipping logjam in the Strait of Hormuz, where tanker traffic has slowed to a trickle due to...

Imagery analyzed by Faytuks Network indicates a large plume of smoke near Saudi Arabia's East-West oil pipeline south of Medina

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday that they would ban ships linked to Israel from the Red Sea after Israel renewed its military attacks on Iran, adding to concerns about global shipping and energy flows.

The Houthi rebels in Yemen announced on Tuesday evening that they will attack any ship that violates the group's ban on Israeli vessels passing through the Red and Arabian seas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden, effective immediately. The "ban on the passage of all Israeli ships" will continue "until the crossings to the Gaza Strip are reopened and aid, food, and medicine are allowed in," said the Houthis’ military spokesperson, Yahya Saree. Earlier on Tuesday evening, Al-Arabiya reported that the United States attacked Houthi radar facilities and weapons storage sites in the port of Al-Hudaydah in...

#BREAKING ⚡️Houthis announced that they hit an American warship.— UKR REPORT (@UKR_Report) January 24, 2024

The de facto threat to shipping through the Bab al-Mandab must not be allowed to stand With all the media focus on President Trump’s recent meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, a major event took place last week in the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, which received little notice. The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have acknowledged that they fired a missile supplied by Iran from the vicinity of the port city of Hodeida that hit a Saudi Aramco tanker. In response, even though there was little damage, Saudi Arabia has suspended all its shipping from transiting the Bab al-Mandab Strait.