What’s happened?
The US carried out fresh strikes this week against anti-ship ballistic-missile sites in a Houthi-controlled part of Yemen. It followed the latest attacks by the Houthis – the Iranian-backed Shia group that controls most of the war-torn country – on commercial and naval vessels in the Red Sea. Since October, when Israel’s war in Gaza began, the Houthis have carried out dozens of similar missile and drone attacks on ships in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which Europe-bound ships must pass through as they head into the Red Sea and up to the Suez Canal, while Asian-bound vessels must