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Comment by enterprise_cog | Hacker News Reader

Ansar Allah is targeting the US, Israel, and their allies who support Israel.

China can sail the route just fine, for example.

Ansar Allah has targeted random ships, including Russian tankers, and, most notably, was conducting these attacks before the October 7th attacks; their advocacy for Israel is a retcon. It's worth pointing out that if Ansar Allah succeeded in liberating Palestine, their next action would be to burn down all the mosques --- Palestinians are overwhelmingly Sunni (and Hamas is an explicitly Sunni organization), and Ansar Allah is at war with Sunnis in Yemen, where it has been destroying mosques for the last year.

Which Russian tanker? One was hit carrying Russian naphtha, the Marlin Luanda, but it was not owned by Russia. AA claims it was British[0].

What ship attacks happened prior to the 7th?

> "It's worth pointing out that if Ansar Allah succeeded in liberating Palestine, their next action would be to burn down all the mosques"

No, it wouldn't. This is pure conjecture. The Sunni and Shia conflict in Yemen is far more complex than you are trying to make it sound. The Sunni Saudis have been inflicting a famine on Yemen for years. The Sunni Emiratis have been assassinating and conducting terrorism within Yemen. This is important context to leave out.

[0]https://web.archive.org/web/20240127202900/https://www.bbc.c...

All you're saying here is that you think Ansar Allah has good reason to attack native Yemeni Sunnis, who make up the majority of the population. I don't think defending or even mitigating the Houthi cult is an especially useful rhetorical hill to die on. Note that I didn't refer to "Sunni Emiratis". They're not blowing up mosques in the Emirates, are they?

The Houthis have been attacking shipping since at least 2015: https://acleddata.com/2024/01/05/qa-why-are-yemens-houthis-a...

That was part of their war with the Saudi coalition. The parent was saying they were attacking random targets and only used the genocide as cover for more random attacks, when it is clear they are targeted attacks and for specific purposes. Appreciate the link.

You’ll note one of the specific purposes the link lists for the shipping attacks is to distract from domestic failures in Yemen.

It’s not an outlandish position to say that the Israeli/Hamas conflict is a secondary reason for the Houthi shipping attacks.

I don't disagree with that. Actions can have many intentions. But that doesn't mean they don't oppose the genocide and are using it unscrupulously to attack ships (which the parent was implying). The majority of muslims In Yemen, regardless of sect, support Gaza and oppose the genocide. This is a good way to take a moral stand, gain public support and further legitimize their government, and be a thorn in the side of the US.

Don't be naive. Regardless of the propaganda they might try to push, the Houthis are engaged in indiscriminate terrorism as Iranian proxies and have attacked vessels owned and operated by multiple nations regardless of links to Israel. They hit the Chinese / Panamanian tanker MV Huang Pu.

https://news.usni.org/2024/03/24/chinese-tanker-hit-with-hou...

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