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Houthi Leader Claims Attacks on 54 Ships, Promises More 'Surprises'

Washington and London launched more than 300 raids against the Houthis to weaken their ability to attack ships. (Reuters)
Washington and London launched more than 300 raids against the Houthis to weaken their ability to attack ships. (Reuters)
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Houthi Leader Claims Attacks on 54 Ships, Promises More 'Surprises'

Washington and London launched more than 300 raids against the Houthis to weaken their ability to attack ships. (Reuters)
Washington and London launched more than 300 raids against the Houthis to weaken their ability to attack ships. (Reuters)

The leader of the Houthi group in Yemen, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, vowed to continue naval attacks, and claimed the targeting of 54 ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, boasting that his group had launched 384 missiles and drones since November.

In remarks on Thursday, Al-Houthi promised more “surprises that the enemies will not expect,” referring to the escalation of attacks against ships in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab, the Gulf of Aden, and the Arabian Sea.

He also warned the Europeans against participating with the United States and Britain in the strikes in Yemen, and mocked Germany’s “confused involvement”, as it mistakenly fired missiles at its allies, stressing that the attacks would not stop unless aid reached the Palestinians in Gaza.

Al-Houthi’s weekly statements came in parallel with remarks by advisor to the Yemeni Defense Minister, asserting that Western strikes against the group will not be sufficient, and calling for the need to support government forces on the ground.

While the Houthi leader claimed that his group enjoys “divine support,” he reiterated that the strikes launched by Washington and London had no effect and did not limit the military capabilities of the Houthis, who receive backing from Iran.

A German frigate, active in the Red Sea as part of a European mission to protect commercial ships, almost accidentally shot down an American drone, Reuters reported, quoting German media.

The German Ministry of Defense confirmed that an accident had occurred involving an allied country’s drone, last Monday, without mentioning the name of this country.

For his part, Major General Abdul Hakim Amer, advisor to the Yemeni Minister of Defense, said that the US and British air strikes against the Houthis would not be efficient alone, stressing that the matter required a “military decision” on the ground.

During an exclusive interview with the Arab World Press television service, the Yemeni official expressed the army’s readiness to “resolve the battle” if air cover was available.

Since Jan. 12, the United States, along with Britain, began launching strikes against the Houthis, in response to their attacks on maritime ships in the Red Sea.

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Families of Disappeared in Syria Want the Search to Continue on Conflict’s 14th Anniversary

Family members hold pictures of their relatives who disappeared in the nearly 14-year Syrian civil war, during a protest calling on the interim government to not give up on efforts to find them, in the city of Daraa, Syria, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP)
Family members hold pictures of their relatives who disappeared in the nearly 14-year Syrian civil war, during a protest calling on the interim government to not give up on efforts to find them, in the city of Daraa, Syria, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP)
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Families of Disappeared in Syria Want the Search to Continue on Conflict’s 14th Anniversary

Family members hold pictures of their relatives who disappeared in the nearly 14-year Syrian civil war, during a protest calling on the interim government to not give up on efforts to find them, in the city of Daraa, Syria, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP)
Family members hold pictures of their relatives who disappeared in the nearly 14-year Syrian civil war, during a protest calling on the interim government to not give up on efforts to find them, in the city of Daraa, Syria, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP)

Family members of Syrians who disappeared in the 14-year civil war on Sunday gathered in the city of Daraa and called on the interim government to not give up on efforts to find them.

The United Nations in 2021 estimated that over 130,000 Syrians were taken away and disappeared, many of them detained by Bashar al-Assad's network of intelligence agencies, as well as by opposition fighters and the extremist ISIS group. Advocacy group The Syrian Campaign says some 112,000 are still missing to this day.

When opposition led by group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham overthrew President Bashar Assad in April, they stormed prisons and released detainees from the ousted government's dungeons.

Families of the missing quickly rushed to the prisons seeking their loved ones. While there were some reunions, rescue services also discovered mass graves around the country and used whatever remains they could retrieve to identify the dead.

Wafa Mustafa held a placard of her father, Ali, who was detained by the Assad government's security forces in 2013. She fled a week later to Germany, fearing she would also be detained, and hasn't heard from him since.

Like many other Syrians who fled the conflict or went into exile for their activism, she often held protests and rallied in European cities. Now, she has returned twice since Assad's ouster, trying to figure out her father's whereabouts.

“I’m trying, feeling both hope and despair, to find any answer on the fate of my father,” she told The Associated Press. “I searched inside the prisons, the morgues, the hospitals, and through the bodies of the martyrs, but I still couldn’t find anything.”

A United Nations-backed commission on Friday urged the government led by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa to preserve evidence and anything they can document from prisons in the ongoing search for the disappeared and to pursue perpetrators.

Some foreign nationals are missing in Syria as well, notably American journalist Austin Tice, whose mother visited Syria in January and met with al-Sharaa. Tice has not been heard from other than a video released weeks after his disappearance in 2012 that showed him blindfolded and held by armed men.

Syria’s conflict started as one of the popular uprisings of the so-called 2011 Arab Spring, before Assad crushed the largely peaceful protests and a civil war erupted. Half a million people have been killed and more than 5 million left the country as refugees.