A year after an Iranian-backed rebel group hijacked the car carrier Galaxy Leader and held its crew hostage, there have been more than 300 reported attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.

The Houthis are clearly inferior in combat capabilities. Yet naval forces operating in the region have failed to stop their attacks. This is true even though the United States has struck the Houthis on multiple occasions with a combination of air power and naval missile strikes.

Germany's defense ministry said Wednesday that two German naval ships would have to detour through Africa due to a "very high threat level" in the Red Sea, where the situation has become unstable due to attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen.

On Sunday, Aden Brides Company recovered 10 sunken ships in the fishing port in the interim capital, Aden, in the south of the country.

The Houthi attacks on shipping appear to have been largely indiscriminate, and many of the targeted commercial vessels had no connection to Israel and, in one case, were actually carrying aid to Yemen.

Data from Lloyd's List Intelligence showed that about 30 percent of Houthi attacks through early September were on ships owned by Greek companies, one of the world's largest fleets, without specifying whether these ships were linked to Israel.