El sitio de noticias israel\u00ed Globes inform\u00f3 que los cables pertenecientes a cuatro grandes redes de telecomunicaciones, incluidas Asia-\u00c1frica-Europa 1 (AAE-1), TGN Atlantic, Europe India Gateway y el sistema Seacom, han sido da\u00f1ados en los \u00faltimos meses. El movimiento Houthi es muy consciente de esta oportunidad. A principios de este a\u00f1o, una cuenta de redes sociales Houthi public\u00f3 un mapa de estos cables, junto con una nota sobre que la densidad de la infraestructura de telecomunicaciones hac\u00eda que Yemen fuera “estrat\u00e9gico”. El gobierno de Yemen, reconocido internacionalmente, emiti\u00f3 una advertencia sobre la posible amenaza de los hut\u00edes a estos activos submarinos a principios de este mes. Seg\u00fan los informes, lo ha discutido con los operadores de telecomunicaciones en el pasado.<\/p>\n
Just weeks after a warning about potential Houthi threats to subsea cables in the Red Sea, at least one fiber-optic line has been severed at a position off the coast of Yemen, and damage has been reported (but not confirmed) on three more.<\/p>\n
Until last year, the Red Sea carried about one-eighth of the world’s shipping traffic. Less known is its importance to the functioning of the global internet. 16 small fiber-optic lines under the Red Sea handle about 17 percent of all international data traffic, including trunk lines connecting Europe with India and East Asia. Some of these lines are in relatively shallow water depths of as little as 300 feet, where they could be accessible to divers.<\/p>\n
The Houthi movement is well aware of this opportunity. Earlier this year, a Houthi social media account posted a map of these cables, along with a note that the density of telecom infrastructure made Yemen “strategic.” The internationally-recognized government of Yemen issued a warning of the potential Houthi threat to these subsea assets earlier this month, and has reportedly discussed it with telecom operators in the past.<\/p>\n