US official says Iran could be behind Yemen's Houthi rebels' seizure of Red Sea cargo ship: report

Iran may have backed the Houthi rebel group that hijacked and seized the Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea on Sunday, various entities now say.

"This has all the signs these people were trained by a professional military, which could clearly be Iran," the defense official said. "This looks like something we haven’t seen before."

On Sunday, the Yemen rebel group seized the ship as it was traveling from Turkey to India. The rebels, carrying rifles and dressed in commando-style bulletproof vests, covered each other and moved in military formation before they quickly seized control of the bridge of the Galaxy Leader. The Israel Defense Forces described the hijacking as "a very grave incident of global consequence."