Houthis claim Israeli port Haifa attack with Iraqi group

Today, the Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthi militia announced it had carried out two military operations against targets in Israel’s Haifa port, in conjunction with the Iraqi Shiite militia.

In a statement posted on X, military spokesman Yahya Sarea said: “We carried out two joint military operations with the Iraqi Islamic Resistance. The first targeted two ships that were carrying military equipment in the port of Haifa. The second targeted a ship that violated the decision to ban entry to the port of Haifa.”

The statement indicated that the two operations "were carried out with a number of drones, and the strikes […] were accurate." Sarea stated the two operations were part of a response to the Israeli “massacres” of Palestinians in Rafah, Gaza.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq is an umbrella that includes the Shiite factions sponsored by Iran in Iraq. It has flourished since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

On March 1, senior Houthi official Abdulmalik Al-Ajri acknowledged, during a meeting with the Atheer platform affiliated with Al Jazeera Network, the existence of field coordination and a unified operations room between the factions of the Iranian-led resistance axis.

Al-Ajri said: “There is an operations room and joint coordination with the Iranians and Hezbollah at all levels, including military operations before and after the events of October 7, as this is an axis of resistance.”

Shortly after Sarea’s statement today, Houthi leader Abdulmalik Al-Houthi announced that this week, his group had carried out 11 operations in the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean, using 36 ballistic missiles and drones.

He also reported that 17 Houthi fighters had been killed and 43 injured by US and UK naval raids and bombardments during that time. 

Yesterday, the Houthis announced that they had targeted three ships, including the American ship Maersk Seletar, with drones in the eastern Arabian Sea.

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The list included two ships, the Roza and Vantage Dream, in the Red Sea. The statement did not clarify the ships’ nationalities but indicated they had violated the ban on entering Israeli ports.