Reprisals mark anniversary of U.S. killing of general

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Yemen’s Houthi rebels seized a ship in the Red Sea, armed drones targeted Baghdad’s international airport, and hackers hit a major Israeli newspaper Monday — a string of assaults that showed the reach of Iran-allied militias on the second anniversary of America’s killing of a top Iranian general.

All three coincided with a huge memorial in Tehran for Qassem Soleimani, the general killed by a U.S. drone strike on Jan. 3, 2020, in Iraq. Iran’s hardline President Ebrahim Raisi demanded that former U.S. President Donald Trump be “prosecuted and killed.”

“If not, I’m telling all American leaders, don’t doubt that the hand of revenge will come out of the sleeves of ummah,” Raisi said, referring to the worldwide community of Muslims.

Monday’s events highlight tensions in the Middle East, which has been roiled by Trump’s 2018 decision to unilaterally withdraw America from a deal aimed at limiting Tehran’s nuclear program. As talks continue in Vienna to try to resuscitate the accord, Iran remains able to apply pressure from outside of the negotiations even as it is squeezed by sanctions and a shadow war with Israel.

The taking of the Emirati ship Rwabee marks the latest assault in the Red Sea, a crucial route for international trade and energy shipments. The Iranian-backed Houthis acknowledged the seizure off the coast of Hodeida, a long-contested prize of the grinding war in Yemen between the rebels and a Saudi-led coalition that includes the United Arab Emirates.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the hacking of the Jerusalem Post’s website. The hackers replaced the Post’s homepage with an image depicting a missile coming from a fist bearing a ring long associated with Soleimani.

The image also depicted an exploding target used during a recent Iranian military drill that was designed to look like the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center near the Israeli city of Dimona.

The newspaper later restored its site. It noted Iran-supporting hackers previously targeted its homepage in 2020.

In Iraq, troops shot down two drones at Baghdad’s airport, American and Iraqi officials said. No group immediately claimed the attack, though one of the drones’ wings had the words “Soleimani’s revenge” painted on it in Arabic. No injuries or damage were reported.