SANAA, Yemen — After being confined to Yemen's mainland for the past 19 months, the country's civil war has finally spread to the sea in a major development that mobilized the fleets of international and regional players.

On the evening of Oct. 12, a US Navy destroyer launched Tomahawk missiles against three radar sites on the Yemeni coast after a failed missile attack against a US destroyer on Oct. 9. Washington believes that the radar stations, which are under the control of the Houthis, had targeted the USS Mason off of Yemen’s coast on Oct. 9.

This engagement in one of the most important maritime routes in the world has been in the making since Oct. 1, when Ansar Allah, a Houthi group, announced the targeting of a UAE ship in Bab el-Mandeb Strait with an anti-ship missile. The attack seriously damaged the US-flagged Swift 2. The United Arab Emirates said "the targeting will have serious implications for freedom of navigation."

The said attack was not limited to the Emirati ship, as a US destroyer was also targeted three times in a week while sailing in international waters in the Red Sea. The most recent attack was against the USS Mason on Oct. 15 from Yemeni territory in an apparent escalation of military operations in Bab el-Mandeb.