New naval coalition a ‘highway patrol’ to thwart Houthi ‘bandits’ in Red Sea, Pentagon says

The Defense Department described Yemen’s Houthi rebels as “bandits” preying on merchant ships passing through the “international highway” that is the Red Sea. That makes the new U.S.-organized Operation Prosperity Guardian multinational task force a maritime highway patrol charged with keeping the peace in the region, a Pentagon spokesman said Thursday.

The Iran-backed Houthis began launching drones and missiles at merchant ships passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden after Hamas launched its October 7 attack on Israel. More than 20 nations have now signed on to participate in the mission, Defense Department officials said.

“This is an international problem that requires an international response. We will continue to work with this ‘coalition of the willing’ and all countries will be able to contribute what they feel that they can,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman told reporters. “In some cases, that will include vessels [and] in other cases, it could include staff or other types of support.” 

Operation Prosperity Guardian will fall under Combined Maritime Forces, an international naval coalition based in Bahrain under the command of the U.S. 5th Fleet.

“The Houthis aren’t attacking just one country. They’re attacking the economic well-being and prosperity of nations around the world,” Gen. Ryder said. “This is a defensive coalition that is there to help reassure global shipping and mariners as they transit the straits.”

Several major shipping companies and oil firms have suspended travel through the Red Sea after more than a dozen civilian ships came under attack since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Houthi officials say their campaign is a show of support for the Palestinian cause in the fighting. 

Pentagon officials declined to elaborate on the strategy and tactics Operation Prosperity Guardian will employ to counter the Houthi attacks on merchant ships. The forces will cover an area of about 450 miles, the distance from Washington, D.C. to Boston.

“We’re going to continue to work with the international community to safeguard those vessels that are transiting those waterways,” Gen. Ryder said. “I would hope that the Houthis would understand the pressure that they are going to bring onto themselves if they don’t stop these attacks.”