The United States carried out additional strikes against Yemen’s Houthis on Friday (January 12), after President Joe Biden’s administration vowed to protect shipping in the Red Sea.
The latest U.S. attack targeting a radar site comes a day after dozens of attacks by the U.S. and Britain on facilities belonging to Iranian-backed groups.
U.S. Central Command said in a statement to He said he used it.
At 3:45 a.m. (Sana’a time) on January 13, the U.S. military conducted an attack on a Houthi radar site in Yemen. The attack was conducted by the USS Kearney (DDG 64) using Tomahawk land attack missiles and was a follow-up action against specific military targets related to the attack. pic.twitter.com/YE5BKJLGBv
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) January 13, 2024
Houthi TV station al-Masira reported that the US and UK were targeting Yemen’s capital Sanaa with attacks.
Concerns over the escalation of the regional conflict intensified as US and British warplanes, ships and submarines were launched on Thursday by the group carrying out maritime operations in support of Palestinians besieged by Israel in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. It fired missiles at targets throughout the country it controlled.
As Houthi leaders vow to retaliate, Mr. Biden said Friday that he could order more attacks if they do not stop attacks on merchant ships and warships in one of the world’s most economically important waterways. I warned you.
“If the Houthis continue this heinous act, we will definitely respond,” Biden told reporters while in Pennsylvania on Friday.
In the early hours of Friday, Yemeni time, witnesses saw explosions at military bases near the airports of the capital Sanaa and Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city, a naval base in Yemen’s main Red Sea port of Hodeidah, and a military facility in the coastal province of Hajjah. confirmed.
White House Press Secretary John Kirby said the first attack targeted the Houthis’ ability to store, launch and guide missiles and drones that they have used in recent months to threaten shipping in the Red Sea.
The Pentagon said the U.S. and British attacks had reduced the Houthis’ ability to launch new attacks. The US military announced that 60 targets at 28 locations were attacked.
The Houthis, who control Sanaa and much of western and northern Yemen, said five fighters were killed but vowed to continue attacks on shipping in the region.
The British Maritime Trade Operations Information Hub said it had received reports that a missile had landed in the sea about 500 meters from a ship about 90 nautical miles south-east of the Yemeni port of Aden.
Ship security firm Ambry identified it as a Panamanian-flagged tanker carrying Russian oil.
Drone footage from the Houthi al-Masira TV showed hundreds of thousands of people in Sanaa chanting slogans denouncing Israel and the United States.
“The attack on Yemen is terrorism,” said Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, a member of the Houthi Supreme Political Council. “America is the devil”
Biden, whose administration removed the Houthis from the State Department’s list of “foreign terrorist organizations” in 2021, was asked by reporters whether he thought the word “terrorist” was a good way to describe the current movement. “I think so,” he said.
ripple effect
The Red Sea crisis is part of the violent spillover from the war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Islamist group Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza into the region.
Hamas militants went on a rampage in southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages. Israel responded by ravaging large parts of Gaza in order to annihilate Hamas. More than 23,000 Palestinians were killed.
Tobias Bork, a Middle East security expert at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, said the Houthis want to portray themselves as champions of the Palestinian cause, but are primarily concerned about retaining power. He said there was.
At the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield defended the Yemeni airstrikes, saying they were aimed at “disrupting and diminishing the Houthis’ ability to continue their reckless attacks on shipping and commercial shipping.” .
Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia said earlier that the United States and Britain “singlehandedly triggered the conflict[in Gaza]to spread throughout the region.”
“We have no interest in war with Yemen,” Kirby said in Washington.
In the impoverished country, which has just emerged from nearly a decade of war that left millions on the brink of starvation, people lined up at gas stations, fearing another prolonged conflict.
Soaring crude oil prices
Brent crude oil prices rose more than $2 on Friday on concerns about possible supply disruptions, but then lost half of their gains. Biden said Friday he was “very concerned” about the impact of Middle East wars on oil prices.
At least nine oil tankers were found anchored in or diverted from the Red Sea, according to civilian ship tracking data.
The airstrikes followed months of attacks by Houthi fighters aboard Israeli ships or ships they say are heading to Israel. Many of the ships had no known connections to Israel.
The United States and some allies sent a naval task force in December, and the situation has escalated in recent days. On Tuesday, the US and UK shot down 21 missiles and drones.
the allies were divided
However, not all major US allies chose to support an attack inside Yemen.
The Netherlands, Australia, Canada and Bahrain provided logistical and intelligence support, while Germany, Denmark, New Zealand and South Korea signed a joint statement defending the attack and warning of further action.
However, Italy, Spain and France feared expansion and chose not to sign or participate.
A senior US official accused the Iranian government of providing the Yemeni group with military capabilities and intelligence to carry out attacks.
Iran condemned the airstrikes, but so far there are no signs that Iran is seeking a direct conflict.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said the White House could “restore security across the region” by suspending “full military and security cooperation” with Israel.
Houthi attacks are forcing commercial ships to take longer and more expensive routes around Africa, raising concerns of fresh inflation and supply chain disruptions. Container shipping rates on major global routes have skyrocketed this week.
(Edited by Georgi Gotev)
