On January 10, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a statement saying that Yemen's Houthi rebels had launched their largest attack yet on a merchant ship in the Red Sea, and the situation had now deteriorated. According to the statement, there were about 50 merchant ships in the area at the time of the attack.
The US Central Command stated that the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier battle group shot down 18 drones launched by Yemen's Houthis into the southern Red Sea on the evening of the 9th.
At present, several US media have discussed whether the US military should take the initiative to bomb the Houthis, instead of being passively defensive as it is now. There are also more radical media outlets that suggest bombing Iran directly, because all the weapons of the Houthis in Yemen come from Iran, ostensibly the Houthis are harassing them, and behind them are Iran manipulating.
But it is clear that the United States has no intention of launching an attack on Iran or expanding the geopolitical conflict in the Middle East, and Blinken's visit to the Middle East is also to seek to de-escalate the situation. But the successive attacks also show us that the Houthis are bent on making things bigger, from the previous attack on merchant ships to the current large-scale attack on US ships, the Houthis are provoking and provoking. So if the United States is really provoked, what benefits can the Houthis get? Then behind this is obviously a big game of chess played by Iran.