Islamic Iran is pulling the strings and its local stooges are jumping to them threatening
global commerce. But beyond Hamas terrorists in Gaza, or Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, a new seaborne threat has emerged in the Red Sea, a vital waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean.

The Houthi militants, a Yemeni-based Islamic militia have taken their fight from the mountainous lands of the Arabian Peninsula to the Red Sea, which serves as a key commercial conduit for merchant ships sailing between Europe and East Asia. Officially the Houthis are involved in a decade-long civil war with Yemen’s central government, and among other things have caused wider poverty and population dislocation in their already poor country.

The current attacks on and seizing of ships recall memories of the Somali pirate threat of a decade ago.

But the Houthis have upped the ante with drones and long-range missile attacks, supplied by Iran, to harass both merchant vessels and ships of the U.S. Navy and its allies escorting them. The armed militants seized the Japanese-operated cargo vessel Galaxy Leader in November and still hold the ship and its crew hostage.

The Houthis, officially known as........

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