The United States and the United Kingdom have reportedly bombed eighteen Houthi sites in the fourth joint operation by the two nations against the Shia group in Yemen, as the militant organization has continued its attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in protest against Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
“The U.S. and UK-led coalition fighting Yemen-based Houthi militants launched a new round of airstrikes on Saturday in response to a recent surge in maritime attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, the Pentagon has said.
Since November last year, the militant group has repeatedly attacked naval and commercial vessels, claiming to act in support of the Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war, which has so far left over 29,000 people in Gaza dead.
The fourth joint strike hit 18 targets across eight locations in Yemen associated with ‘Houthi underground weapons storage facilities, missile storage facilities, one-way attack unmanned aerial systems, air defense systems, radars, and a helicopter’, according to a statement released by the coalition, which also includes Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.
The coalition claims that the Houthis attacks ‘demand an international response’. The U.S. Defense Department issued a separate statement saying the United States ‘will not hesitate to take action, as needed, to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways’.
Just hours after the airstrike, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported that Houthis had targeted a U.S. tanker and warship in response, adding that the missiles aimed at the tanker were shot down. It is not known whether the military ship sustained any damage, IRNA said.
Earlier, the Houthi military declared that it would retaliate against any American or British ‘aggression’ against Yemen”. -RT
Six weeks after the first round of strikes on Houthi targets, the U.S. and Britain’s bombardment of Yemen has unequivocally failed to erode the Houthis’ military capabilities and put an end to their attacks on Israeli-linked shipping.
The Yemeni rebel movement has reportedly launched 57 attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November 19th, and the frequency of the Houthis’ maritime assaults has only increased as of late.