Houthis Hint at More Attacks on Shipping, Iranians Threaten US Aircraft Carrier

The Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen have posted a video that hints at plans to resume attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

A short video showed montages of images of a ship on fire, with the Arabic caption translated as “Soon.”

The footage in the video was an attack in the Gulf of Aden in January 2024 on the oil tanker “Marlin Luanda,” which was one of more than 100 ships hit by the Houthis, who are allies of the terrorist group Hamas, and began missile and drone attacks shortly after the conflict in the Gaza Strip began in October 2023.

The threat may be linked to the passage of a U.S. aircraft carrier toward Iran. Last week, the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group (CSG) entered the Malacca Strait en route to the Indian Ocean, and possibly the Persian Gulf.

“We‘ll see what happens. We have a big force going toward Iran. I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely,” President Donald Trump said on Jan. 22.

Over the weekend, the Iranian regime unveiled a banner in Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) Square in downtown Tehran, threatening the Abraham Lincoln strike group.

The banner shows an aircraft carrier strewn with bodies and covered in blood above the slogan “If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind.”

“Regional countries fully know that any security breach in the region will not affect Iran only. The lack of security is contagious,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told journalists.

Trump has said he will take action if any more protesters are killed in Iran, or if the regime carries out mass executions of those it arrested during the demonstrations against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime earlier this month.

The organization Human Rights Activists in Iran said on Jan. 25 that 5,848 people had been killed since the demonstrations began on Dec. 28, with more than 41,000 arrested.

Iran Threatens ‘Painful’ Response

Iranian Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Reza Talaei-Nik warned the United States and Israel against attacking the regime in Tehran and said it would “be met with a response that is more painful and more decisive than in the past.”

Iranian state television reported Talaei-Nik as saying Iran would “maintain full and comprehensive preparedness.”

Iran was in a 12-day war with Israel and the United States in June last year, which resulted in heavy damage to its air defense systems, the loss of several senior leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and major attacks on its nuclear program.

On March 4, 2025, the Houthis, who are formally known as Ansarallah, were designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

The Houthis have not attacked shipping since the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas went into effect in October 2025.

But the Iranian proxies have hinted they could resume their attacks on shipping if the regime in Tehran comes under attack.

The Houthis control two-thirds of the population in Yemen and coordinate with Hamas, Hezbollah, and the IRGC.

They have acquired many of their weapons from Tehran, and the Houthi flag includes words such as “Curse be upon the Jews” and “Death to the U.S.A., death to Israel.”

In October, the Houthis acknowledged that their chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Muhammad Abdul Karim al-Ghamari, had been killed in an Israeli air strike in August 2025.

Threat From Proxy in Iraq

Another Iranian proxy, Iraq-based Kataib Hezbollah, also threatened the United States.

“We affirm to the enemies that the war on the republic [Iran] will not be a picnic, but you will taste in it the colors of a terrible death and nothing will remain of you in our region, and (we will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve),” the group’s secretary-general, Abu Hussain al-Hamidawi, said in a statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani about Iranian influence in his country.

“The Secretary emphasized that a government controlled by Iran cannot successfully put Iraq’s own interests first, keep Iraq out of regional conflicts, or advance the mutually beneficial partnership between the United States and Iraq,” the State Department said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.