Multinational task force to counter Houthis: US

News

• In order to combat the Houthi threat in the Red Sea, the US has announced the formation of a new multinational task force.
• Operation Prosperity Guardian, a ten-nation Task Force comprising the Navies of Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles, Spain, and the United Kingdom, will be named.
• According to Mr. Austin, the new security initiative will tackle the security issues in the Gulf of Aden, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait near Yemen, and the southern Red Sea.
• Its objectives are to guarantee freedom of navigation for all nations and to support regional security and prosperity.
• Reason for such task force:
  • The Houthis, a rebel group supported by Iran, has been attacking numerous merchant vessels nonstop for the past few weeks, forcing companies to halt their routes through the area.
  • US Defense Secretary stated at a briefing that the Houthis’ harassment of ships in the Red Sea is a breach of international law.

About geographical location near Red Sea

About Houthis and the Yemen Civil War

• The Houthis are a significant Zaidi Shia clan i.e. about 35% of Yemen’s population.
• Yemen was ruled by the Zaidis for over a thousand years until they were ousted in 1962.
• The Houthis launched an insurgent campaign against the Yemeni government in 2004.
• Following the Arab Spring protests, Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president of Yemen, was compelled to resign in 2012 and his deputy, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, succeeded him.
• Saleh sided with the Houthis against Hadi in 2015, and together they took Sana’a (capital of Yemen).
• President Hadi fled to Aden and then to Saudi Arabia as a result.
• Saleh defected from the Houthis in 2017 and aligned himself with President Hadi, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Following this, Saleh was assassinated.
• Post 2014, there has been continuous civil war in Yemen and the Houthis are backed by Iran as for Iran it is strategic in nature to counter Saudi Arabia and other rival nation in the region.

Operation Rahat: In April 2015, India began a large-scale air and maritime operation to remove over 4,000 of its citizens from Yemen.

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