Yemen’s Houthi rebels yesterday announced their entry into the Middle East war by launching a ballistic missile toward Israel, as the world struggles to contain the economic damage of a conflict now entering its second month.
The intervention of Iran’s Yemeni allies into Tehran’s conflict with Israel and the US would spark concern about disruption to Red Sea shipping, with trade from the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz already choked off.
With Hormuz closed, many shipments to and from the region pass through the Omani port of Salalah, on the Arabian Sea, but Danish shipping giant Maersk said operations had been temporarily suspended after a drone attack injured one worker and damaged a crane. The war began when the US and Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across Iran, killing supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, engulfing the Middle East in conflict and triggering global economic pain by sending oil and gas prices soaring.
Photo: AP
With no end to the conflict in sight, despite US President Donald Trump’s optimism that US forces have obliterated Iran’s military, a spokesman for the Houthis issued a video statement declaring that the group had launched ballistic missiles toward Israeli bases.
A few hours earlier, the Israeli military had said it had “identified the launch of a missile from Yemen toward Israeli territory, aerial defense systems are operating to intercept the threat.”
There were no reports of any casualties or damage in Israel, and the missile was reportedly intercepted.
Saudi Arabia has diverted a large proportion of its oil exports to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, to avoid the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran says it has closed to shipping from hostile powers — driving up energy prices worldwide.
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