After Hamas launched its deadly terrorist attack in Israel this past October, and Israel began its unrelenting war in Gaza in response, President Biden warned Iran and its proxies in the Middle East to stay out of it. One of those groups decided instead that it was all in. That group is a Shia militia from Yemen, known as the Houthis. Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East, but its 1,200 miles of coastline leads in and out of the Suez Canal, the primary route by sea between Europe and Asia, responsible for a trillion dollars a year in global trade. So, when the Houthis began to attack commercial ships, in solidarity with Hamas, President Biden faced a crisis in the Red Sea and sent the U.S. Navy into its first major fight of the 21st century.
Our report begins not on the water, but in the air, where from a U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane 500 feet above the Red Sea, we were the first journalists to see the types of commercial ships the Houthis have targeted and the U.S. warships sent to protect them…
Admiral Brad Cooper: We are not gonna let the Houthis hold this strait hostage.
Read the rest of the story at CBS News, here.
