The US has already spent almost 1 billion euros on ammunition during the operation against the Houthis

Insurgent attacks have reduced the passage of cargo ships through the Red Sea by 90 percent, according to a Defense report

June 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –

A report from the US Defense Intelligence Agency estimates that the US Army has already spent almost 1 billion euros on ammunition during its campaign against the Houthi insurgency that has been attacking, since December last year, cargo ships passing through the Red Sea.

The transit of these ships had been reduced by 90 percent in mid-February due to the campaign of the Yemeni group, which took up arms against shipping in solidarity, its leaders say, with the Palestinians under Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip.

Since the beginning of the campaign, the Houthis have targeted more than a dozen commercial ships between November and March, and have even attempted several kidnappings.

According to the document, collected by the American news portal Axios, the interests of more than 65 countries have been affected and at least 29 major shipping and energy companies have been diverted from the region.

“While many attacks have failed or been intercepted, the Houthis’ reserves do not appear to be anywhere near depleted, even as sporadic attacks by the United States and the United Kingdom against them continue,” warned the senior researcher at the Houthi think tank. the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Behnam Ben Taleblu, in statements to Axios.

Finally, the Intelligence report highlights that “the alternative routes around Africa” ​​that most cargo ships have been forced to take represent an addition of “11,000 nautical miles of travel, up to two more weeks of travel and almost an an additional million euros in fuel”, per ship.

The Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, who control the most populated areas of Yemen, have launched attacks against Israeli territory and against ships that they attribute to some type of relationship with the country as a result of the offensive unleashed against the Gaza Strip after the attacks carried out on October 7 by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

Likewise, they have attacked American and British ships and other strategic assets in response to the bombings of these countries against Yemen, in an intervention that Washington and London base on their desire to guarantee the safety of navigation in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.