Undersea cables cut in the Red Sea, disrupting internet access in Asia and the Mideast
Undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea disrupted internet in Asia and the Middle East, impacting India and Pakistan. Microsoft and NetBlocks confirmed outages, while suspicions of Houthi involvement resurfaced amid ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict and escalating regional tensions over maritime and infrastructure security
Dubai: Undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea disrupted internet access Sunday in parts of Asia and the Middle East, experts said, though it wasn’t immediately clear what caused the incident.
Concerns have grown over possible targeting of the cables in a Red Sea campaign by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who frame their actions as pressure on Israel to end its war on Hamas in Gaza. However, the Houthis have previously denied responsibility for such disruptions.
Microsoft announced via its status website that the Middle East “may experience increased latency due to undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea.”
The company added that internet traffic not routed through the Middle East “is not impacted,” but did not elaborate further.
NetBlocks, which monitors internet access, reported that “a series of subsea cable outages in the Red Sea has degraded internet connectivity in multiple countries,” including India and Pakistan. It attributed the disruption to failures affecting the SMW4 and IMEWE cable systems near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 cable is operated by Tata Communications, while the India-Middle East-Western Europe system is managed by a consortium led by Alcatel-Lucent. Neither company responded immediately to requests for comment. Saudi authorities also did not acknowledge the disruption.
In the United Arab Emirates, internet users on state-owned Du and Etisalat networks reported slower speeds, though the government offered no official statement. The outage comes amid heightened regional tensions, with the Houthis continuing attacks against Israel over the war in Gaza. Israel has responded with airstrikes, including strikes that killed senior rebel leaders.
In early 2024, Yemen’s internationally recognized government in exile accused the Houthis of planning to target undersea cables in the Red Sea. Several cables were later cut, though the rebels denied involvement.
On Sunday morning, however, the Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite channel acknowledged that the cuts had occurred.
From November 2023 to December 2024, the Houthis carried out more than 100 attacks on ships using missiles and drones, sinking four vessels and killing at least eight mariners.
A brief ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war halted their assaults temporarily, but the group later came under a U.S.-led airstrike campaign ordered by President Donald Trump before he announced another ceasefire deal.
The Houthis sank two more vessels in July, killing at least four people, with others believed to be held captive. Their renewed campaign comes as the possibility of a new Israel-Hamas ceasefire hangs in the balance.
Meanwhile, broader U.S.-Iran talks over Tehran’s struggling nuclear program remain uncertain following Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, during which the U.S. bombed three Iranian atomic sites.
