By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2024-01-28

ADEN -- Military experts in Yemen say the Iran-backed Houthis have indiscriminately polluted the Red Sea with naval mines, laid in the vicinity of the international waterway and the Bab al-Mandeb strait.

These mines endanger global navigation and the lives of local fishermen, and in recent years have caused multiple explosions involving merchant vessels and marine tankers, they say.

The Houthis began their current barrage of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea in November.

But before this, in previous years, the Iran-backed group had attacked several vessels bearing the flags of at least five countries: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkiyë, Greece and the Marshall Islands.

The Houthis -- whom the United States on January 17 re-designated as a terrorist group because of their repeated attacks on international shipping -- also have attacked ports in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Long history of sea mine use

"The Iran-backed Houthis began deploying sea mines in late 2015, after they took control of al-Hodeidah," Abaad Center for Strategic Studies in Yemen director Abdul Salam Mohammed told Al-Fassel.

In March 2017, he said, Yemen's naval forces discovered a sea mine laid by the Houthis near the coast off Midi, in the northernmost part of Yemen near Saudi Arabia.

In its 2017 report, the United Nations' panel of experts on Yemen said its experts analyzed three sea mines they found in the port of Mokha, noting that they were identical in shape and size to Iranian sea mines, Mohammed said.

The Houthis themselves confessed to producing a type of sea mine named "Mersad" in a 2018 documentary film, he told Al-Fassel.

In March 2021, he said, the Houthis displayed 11 different models of sea mines, naming them as Karrar-1, Karrar-2, Karrar-3, Asif-2, Asif-3, Asif-4, Shawadh, Thaqib, Awais, Mujahid and al-Naziat.

They had a large number of each type of these naval mines, Mohammed said.

The group displayed six models of mines on September 23, 2023, he added.

'Huge stockpile of naval mines'

Yemeni Landmine Observatory executive director Fares al-Humairi said the Houthis have a huge stockpile of naval mines.

"The sea mines placed by the Houthis in Yemeni waters and the western coast of the country are among the most serious threats to Yemen's naval security," he told Al-Fassel.

"They are also a source of threat to global trade routes, and a lurking danger to the lives of fishermen along the western coast of Yemen."

"Most of the sea mines laid by the Houthis are locally produced, manufactured with Iranian expertise," he said.

"They have been placed both in Yemeni and in international waters, as well as on the coast of the Red Sea and near the Bab al-Mandeb strait," al-Humairi said.

The Houthis have placed "interceptor sea mines of various sizes in the shape of water heaters," he added, and these are filled "with highly explosive materials."

The Houthis recently stepped up the placement of this type of mine around Kamaran Island, al-Salif and al-Hodeidah, to prevent naval landing operations and thwart military attacks from the sea, he said.

In addition, he said, the Houthis have laid a number of acoustic naval mines in Yemeni and international waters of the Red Sea in an attempt to target large vessels.

"The Houthis also use another type of naval mines: floating mines," he said. "They are primitive mines that resemble gas cylinders and are usually equipped with more than one explosive head."

"Dozens of these mines were intercepted off Midi and in international waters in the north Red Sea," he added, noting that they had been placed elsewhere and the wind had caused them to drift.

Magnetic sea mines, which are attached to ship hulls and can be controlled remotely, are another kind of naval mine the Houthis own and use, according to al-Humairi.

Although there has been no report of explosions of this particular type of mine, he said, it is possible that these could be used to attack ships.

Clearing the waters of the Houthis' naval mines would require major, painstaking work, he added.

Fishermen's lives endangered

According to Brig. Gen. Jamil al-Maamari, a military expert, the Houthis have deployed hundreds of sea mines in the coastal strip, from Midi to Bab al-Mandeb.

Yemeni divers have discovered more than 200 sea mines on the coast of Yemen, he said, and fishermen's boats have hit mines and exploded in a number of incidents in Yemeni waters.

Other than fishermen's livelihoods, naval mines also pose a serious threat to international navigation, trade lines and global oil supplies.

The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights has said that more than 100 Yemeni fishermen have been killed in sea mine explosions to date, economist Abdulaziz Thabet told Al-Fassel.