US Navy says new task force to patrol Red Sea amid Yemen war
By JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. Navy says it will begin a new task force with allied countries to patrol the Red Sea after a series of attacks that have been attributed to Yemen’s Houthi rebels in a waterway that’s essential to global trade. Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, who oversees the Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet, declined four times on Wednesday to directly name the Iran-backed Houthis in his remarks to journalists announcing the task force. However, the Houthis have launched explosive-laden drone boats and mines into the waters of the Red Sea, which runs from Egypt’s Suez Canal in the north through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait that separates Africa from the Arabian Peninsula in the south.
