This article needs to be updated.(July 2024) |
Operation Prosperity Guardian | |||||||
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Part of the Red Sea crisis and the Yemeni civil war | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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United States Navy[1] Royal Navy Royal Australian Navy Royal Bahrain Naval Force Royal Canadian Navy Royal Danish Navy Finnish Navy Hellenic Navy Royal Netherlands Navy Royal New Zealand Navy[2] Royal Norwegian Navy Republic of Singapore Navy Sri Lanka Navy[3] Supported by: Seychelles Coast Guard | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unclear (see Houthi armed strength) | Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
10 deaths, 2 injured[9] | 3 deaths (non-combat)[10] |
Operation Prosperity Guardian is a United States-led military operation by a multinational coalition formed in December 2023 to respond to Houthi-led attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.[12]
Following the breakout of the ongoing Israel–Hamas war in October 2023, the Houthi movement in Yemen blockaded Israel in the Red Sea and launched a series of attacks against commercial vessels heading or related to Israel, with the stated purpose of preventing the bombing of Gaza and forcing Israel to let food and medicine into the strip.[13][14][15] On 18 December 2023, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the formation of an international maritime security force aimed at ending the blockade[16] and countering threats by Houthi forces against international maritime commerce in the region.[17]
The coalition currently has more than 20 members, of which ten are anonymously involved.[18][19] Egypt and Saudi Arabia, both economically reliant on unhindered commercial shipping in the area, are absent from the listed participants.[20] France, Italy and Spain have also declined to participate.[21] The chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, Usama Rabia, claimed that "navigation traffic in the Suez Canal was not affected by what is happening in the Red Sea".[22] Nevertheless, on 10 January, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted a resolution demanding a cessation of Houthi attacks on merchant vessels.[23]
The day of the UNSC resolution, the Houthis launched their largest-ever barrage of 18–24 attack drones and missiles at international ships and warships in the Red Sea.[24][25] In response, on 12 January, the coalition launched its first airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, to which the Houthis have pledged to retaliate.[26]
On 7 August 2024, the head of United States naval efforts in the Middle East, Vice Admiral George Wikoff stated that the American and British approach to combat the Houthis in the Red sea crisis had failed to dissuade the Houthis and stop attacks on shipping through the region, arguing that strikes and defensive efforts had done little to change the Houthis' behaviour.[27]
Diamond
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).A Houthi military spokesperson said all ships sailing to Israeli ports are banned from the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea."If Gaza does not receive the food and medicine it needs, all ships in the Red Sea bound for Israeli ports, regardless of their nationality, will become a target for our armed forces," the spokesperson said in a statement.