Free Republic

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office praised former President Donald Trump on Wednesday for his record of achievements in protecting Israel and promoting peace between Israel and neighboring Arab states. “Israelis and the prime minister remember very, very well the incredible support which President Trump, while he was in office, gave to this country,” said Israeli government spokesman David Mencer. Mencer was reacting to news that Trump had reposted Netanyahu’s message of support following the attempted assassination on the former U.S. president on Saturday. Netanyahu expressed his relief that Trump had survived, offered best wishes for his...

Closer cooperation between Russia and the Houthis in Yemen could exacerbate the strategic dilemma facing Western powers as they seek to protect commercial shipping in the Red Sea and beyond. There are indications that Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering supplying the Iran-aligned Yemeni Houthi movement with anti-ship ballistic cruise missiles, Middle East Eye (MEE)—citing an unnamed senior U.S. official—reported on Saturday.

Recent reports suggest that Russia is considering providing the Houthi rebels in Yemen with advanced anti-ship ballistic cruise missiles, potentially exacerbating the strategic dilemma facing Western powers as they seek to protect commercial shipping in the Red Sea and beyond.

The 'Writing on the Wall' has been ignored for several months. The Israeli defense establishment is in a state of complete shock. Though the writing was on the wall, no one saw it coming from a couple thousand kilometers away. That is despite the fact that Hezbollah has managed to successfully strike Israel dozens of times with drones without being detected. The Houthis and an Iranian militia from Iraq have successfully hit parts of Eilat, including a naval base, using drones from late 2023 to mid-2024, without being detected. Israel has essentially outsourced its defense responses regarding the Houthis to...

3 submarine cables cut in the Red Sea between Jeddah and Djibouti. AAE-1, EIG and SEACOM/TGN-Eurasia are down. Note: Authorities looking at potential terror link. Confirmed: Submarine cables cut by Houthis in Yemen waters. To repair the cables, need permission from Yemen to enter their waters Insurance companies have canceled insurance for cable ships to ply in Yemen waters No maintenance cable ships willing to do repairs Cable ships cost $60-&100 million each. Who will take the risk?

Liberia-flagged oil tanker Chios Lion was assessing damage and investigating a potential oil spill after it was attacked by Yemen’s Houthis in the Red Sea, the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) said on Tuesday. An unmanned watercraft inflicted minor damage to Chios Lion’s port side on Monday as part of a swarm of attacks by the Houthis on the vessel and another ship sailing around 100 nautical miles northwest of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah.

Fairly 'low budget', unsophisticated malware, say researchers, but it can collect the same data as Pegasus When it comes to surveillance malware, sophisticated spyware with complex capabilities tends to hog the limelight – for example NSO Group's Pegasus, which is sold to established governments. But it's actually less polished kit that you've never heard of, like GuardZoo – developed and used by Houthi rebels in Yemen – that dominates the space. This is according to Lookout principal researcher Justin Albrecht, who spoke to us about the analyst's report, out today, revealing the existence of GuardZoo. The report says that the...

Yemen’s Houthis are sending drone boats packed with explosives into the Red Sea as they intensify their attacks on merchant ships that have little defense against the “sophisticated shift” in tactic, maritime security sources say. Iran-aligned Houthi militants first launched aerial drone and missile strikes on the trade route in November in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. In over 70 attacks, they have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least three seafarers.

“And I would say that really, it’s the Houthis that have failed to deter the United States and the international community from continuing to operate in the Red Sea. You know, they’ve conducted over 190 attacks, the vast majority of which have been knocked down, thanks to U. S. and international efforts to help safeguard shipping and the lives of mariners through operations like Operation Prosperity Guardian,” Ryder said.“The United States has continued to destroy Houthi offensive capabilities in Yemen, but the terror group continues to have sufficient means to threaten shipping. This offers insights regarding the size of the...

Since November 2023, the Houthis have conducted dozens of attacks on commercial ships transiting the Red Sea, endangering civilian crews and threatening freedom of navigation through a critical global transportation route. The Houthis are non-state actors in Yemen who have used Iran’s support to gradually expand their military capabilities since at least 2015.In early December 2023, the Houthis threatened to attack any ships that they believed were heading to Israeli ports, though many of their attacks both before and since have been against civilian ships with either tenuous or no known Israeli affiliations or port calls. Since mid-December 2023, the...

The IDF says it has intercepted a surface-to-surface missile heading toward Israel from the direction of the Red Sea. The ballistic missile, apparently launched by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, was aimed at Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat. The IDF says the missile was downed using the long-range Arrow air defense system. Sirens had sounded in Eilat amid the incident. The Houthis have fired several ballistic missiles and drones at Eilat amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

An Iranian warship has embarked on a mission in oceanic waters, Iran’s state media reported, in the wake of a warning by Houthi rebels that they could renew their attacks on vessels transiting the region. The aircraft carrier Shahid Mahdavi, operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has reached southern hemisphere waters, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, without specifying its exact location

This is the first time that we know of that a helicopter has intercepted and downed a Houthi drone. French Armed Forces via X MULTIPLE VIDEOS AT SITE.............. French Navy helicopter used machine gun fire to shoot down a Houthi drone over the Red Sea today. This constitutes the latest, and one of the more intriguing, means by which allied forces have downed Houthi drones during the militants’ anti-shipping campaign. France has been a key player in countering the threat posed by Houthi missiles and drones in the Red Sea since late last year. Conformation of the shootdown was initially...

Half the workers at Eilat Port are on the verge of losing their jobs after the seaport took a major financial hit due to the crisis in Red Sea shipping lanes, Israel’s main labor federation says. Eilat sits on a northern tip of the Red Sea and was one of the first ports to be affected as shipping firms rerouted vessels to avoid attacks by the Houthis in Yemen.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The US Maritime Administration (MARAD) has advised vessels under the US flag to turn off automatic identification systems (AIS) transponders while crossing the southern part of the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden amid attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels. "US-flagged commercial vessels transiting the Southern Red Sea, Bab el Mandeb Strait, and Gulf of Aden with AIS transponders on are at increased risk of targeting by adversarial actors. US-flagged commercial vessels operating in these areas are strongly advised to turn off their AIS transponders, unless vessel Masters believe that doing so would...

A drone attack caused damage to a merchant vessel 65 nautical miles west of Yemen's Hodeidah, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) and British security firm Ambrey said on Sunday. "All crew members are reported safe, and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call," UKMTO said in an advisory note. In a separate note, Ambrey identified the vessel as a "Liberia-flagged fully cellular container ship", without providing its name. It said no injuries were reported.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Joint British-U.S. airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed at least 16 people and wounded 42 others, the rebels said Friday, the highest publicly acknowledged death toll from the multiple rounds of strikes carried out over the rebels’ attacks on shipping. Three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe a then-ongoing attack, described the strikes Thursday as hitting a wide range of underground facilities, missile launchers, command and control sites, a Houthi vessel and other facilities. They called it a response to a recent surge in attacks by the Iran-backed militia group on...

The Yemeni Armed Forces responded Saturday to Israel's attack on Houthi military targets near the Al Hudaydah Port, following hundreds of Houthi attacks on Eilat and the Red Sea. "The Israeli enemy has launched a brutal aggression against Hodeidah Governorate, targeting with several raids the power station that supplies the coastal city of Hodeidah with electricity," the Yemeni Armed Forces said. "It also has targeted the Hodeidah port and fuel tanks, all of which are civilian targets." "The Yemeni Armed Forces confirm that they will respond to this blatant aggression and that, with the help of Allah Almighty, they will...

On Friday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “The Record,” former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Wesley Clark (Ret.) stated that the Biden administration has been “micromanaging at the political level” when it comes to combating the Houthis and this micromanaging, pinprick strategy is like the strategy that “cost us in Vietnam under the Johnson and Kennedy administration[s].” Host Tom Basile asked, “Whenever I hear [about] a strike from the Houthis, I keep on thinking of Gulliver being pestered by these Lilliputians. Why aren’t we taking these people out and why aren’t the Israelis doing it or why aren’t we doing it...

A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the area of the Al Hudaydah Port in Yemen in response to the hundreds of attacks carried out against the State of Israel in recent months