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‘Ramadan Is a Month of Jihad’: Houthis Stage Massive Anti-American Rallies in Yemen
The Houthi terrorists of Yemen organized multiple rallies throughout the country Friday in support of their Red Sea terror campaign, reportedly attracting thousands of people in support of the Sunni jihadist terror group Hamas.
The rallies occurred on the last Friday before the anticipated start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, expected to begin on Sunday or Monday in various parts of the world. They also capped off a milestone week for the Houthis, who tallied the first sunken ship and first kills in their seemingly random bombings of commercial vessels navigating in and around the Red Sea.
This handout photo provided by Yemeni Al-Joumhouria TV, shows the British-registered cargo ship ‘Rubymar’ sinking after it was targeted by Yemen’s Houthi forces in international waters in the Red Sea, on March 7, 2024, in the Red Sea. (Al-Joumhouriah channel via Getty Images)
The Houthis, known formally as Ansar Allah, are an Iran-backed Shiite terrorist organization that has controlled the Yemeni capital of Sana’a since launching a civil war against the legitimate government of the country in 2014. The Houthis are staunch supporters of Hamas and issued a formal war declaration against Israel in October as a gesture of support following the harrowing siege of the country by Hamas terrorists on October 7, believed to be the single deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Hamas terrorists killed an estimated 1,200 people, including entire families in their homes, in door-to-door raids on residential communities. The terrorists also engaged in widespread acts of sexual violence, including gang rape, and infanticide, abductions, and torture.
A man carries a weapon as people attend a graduation ceremony for cadets that completed their military training under the name of ‘Aqsa Flood’, organized by the Houthis, in Arhab district of Sana’a, Yemen on February 4, 2024. (Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Houthi leaders began attacking ships navigating near Yemen in the aftermath of the attacks, claiming they would only target ships facilitating commerce with Israel and later expanding their targets to American and British ships. While they have indeed targeted ships with tenuous ties to those three countries, they have also engaged in drone and missile strikes on ships with no clear connection to any of those countries — and ships with ties to nations whose regimes enjoy friendly relations with the Houthis, such as Russia, China, and Iran.
The attacks have caused massive disruptions to global commercial shipping, forcing ships to redirect around Africa to avoid Mideast waters and forcing insurance companies to raise rates. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) documented a 50-percent drop in traffic at the Suez Canal that connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas in the first two months of the year, noting that “about 15 percent of global maritime trade volume normally passes” through there.
In this photo provided by the Indian Navy on January 27, 2024, a view of the oil tanker Marlin Luanda on fire after an attack, in the Gulf of Aden. The crew aboard a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker hit by a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels is battling a fire onboard the stricken vessel sparked by the strike. (Indian Navy via AP)
Houthi sympathizers rallied in Sana’a on Friday, as well as Saada, Raymah, and Marib, according to al-Mayadeen, a media outlet affiliated with the Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah. The Iranian state outlet PressTV, which also reported on the events, described the theme of the rallies as “Victory for Gaza … Our Strikes are Escalating,” an apparent reference to the Red Sea terror campaign. Gaza is the disputed territory currently controlled by Hamas, used by the terrorist organization to organize and execute attacks on Israel. Israel launched a self-defense military operation in the aftermath of October 7 that continues at press time, outraging anti-Israeli governments, activists, and terrorist organizations.
PressTV published a statement allegedly representing the participants in the rally that cited Ramadan as a reason to intensify the frequency of acts of jihadist terrorism.
“The month of Ramadan is a month of jihad before it is a month of worship,” the statement reportedly read. “We will continue to mobilize, and stay on alert.”
“With the advent of the holy month of Ramadan, we call for a total boycott of American and Israeli goods and the companies that support them,” the statement reportedly continued. PressTV did not attribute the statement to any individual or group, including Ansar Allah.
The Iranian state-run Islamic Republic News Agency published images of the rally in Saada on Friday.
Yemeni citizens held a massive rally in Saada province on Friday, as in previous weeks, with the slogan “We will intensify our attacks to support #Gaza“. pic.twitter.com/z96s9fI1AZ
— IRNA News Agency (@IrnaEnglish) March 8, 2024
PressTV and the Turkish state media outlet Anadolu Agency both described the attendance at the rallies as totaling in the “thousands,” but offered no concrete total. Anadolu confirmed that the Houthis organized the rallies in areas they control, rather than Yemenis spontaneously organizing to support Hamas. Al-Mayadeen reported that the Houthis have been organizing similar rallies on Fridays for the past 22 weeks.
“The rally was called upon by the Houthi group under the title ‘In support of Gaza, our hits to intensify,’ in reference to the group’s escalating of its attacks in the Red Sea against Israel-linked ships and the US-UK military ships,” Anadolu specified.
Al-Mayadeen quoted participants as shouting slogans such as “no retreat, no disgrace” and “our strikes are escalating.”
The leader of Ansar Allah, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, has indeed hinted at a rise in the number of terrorist attacks in the near future.
“Our military operations will continue and advance and we have surprises that our enemies will not expect at all,” Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi declared on February 29, boasting that American and British airstrikes “have not affected our military power in any way.”
“The Americans are now admitting their failure to achieve their aggressive goals against our country and are surprised by our strength,” he said.
WATCH — Pentagon: “Some” Houthi Attacks Are Getting Through Despite Us Damaging “Some” of Their Capabilities:
American President Joe Biden told reporters in January that the airstrikes were not working but that he could continue to approve them, anyway. Asked if the strikes had any effect on security in the greater Red Sea region, Biden said, “Well, when you say ‘working,’ are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes.”
On Thursday night, during his annual State of the Union address, Biden claimed he had “ordered strikes to degrade the Houthi capabilities and defend U.S. Forces in the region,” a half-truth: he did order the strikes, but both he and Houthi agree they have not done anything to “degrade the Houthi capabilities.”
The State of the Union address and the Houthi rallies capped a week that began following the news on Saturday of the sinking of the Rubymar, a British-owned ship carrying 21,000 metric tons of fertilizer that the Houthis bombed in February. The Rubymar‘s cargo, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) warned, could cause an environmental disaster.
“The approximately 21,000 metric tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer that the vessel was carrying presents an environmental risk in the Red Sea,” CENTCOM said in a statement this weekend. “As the ship sinks it also presents a subsurface impact risk to other ships transiting the busy shipping lanes of the waterway.”
The Rubymar also reportedly damaged three telecommunications cables at the bottom of the Red Sea, the Biden administration assessed on Wednesday.
“Those cables were cut mostly by an anchor dragging from the Rubymar as she sank,” White House national security communications adviser John Kirby told CBS News.
On Thursday, a Houthi attack on the MV True Confidence, a Liberian-owned ship, resulted in the killing of at least three crew members and another four injured. The three were the first killings attributed to the Houthi Red Sea terror campaign that began in earnest in December.
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