Tension has risen further in the Red Sea. Between Thursday January 11 and Saturday January 13, American and British armed forces bombed around ten military sites of the Houthi rebels located in Yemen. An unprecedented Western military intervention in this Middle Eastern country in the grip of a civil war for almost ten years.
In detail, more than 100 precision munitions were fired at sixty targets and 16 Houthi sites, both by fighter planes and American Tomahawk missiles, according to American Central Command. The bombings targeted the coast, such as the main Yemeni port of Hodeida, as much as the capital Sanaa inland. Five people were killed, according to Houthi authorities.
These strikes were described on Friday as “defensive” by NATO. The reason: the increase in Houthi threats in recent weeks in the region. Since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on October 7, the ruling Yemeni rebels have carried out more than twenty aerial drone and missile attacks against ships of countries allied to Israel and passing near their coasts. in the Red Sea.
The United States and the United Kingdom bombed several military sites of the Houthi rebels in Yemen on Thursday January 11 and Friday January 12.
© / PAZ PIZARRO, OLIVIA BUGAULT / AFP
Ready to repeat the operation
If these bombings were denounced by Iran, Russia, Turkey, Oman and Hamas, the head of British diplomacy David Cameron indicated this Sunday, January 14, that he was ready to repeat the operation in the event of a new Houthi attack. A statement similar to that of US President Joe Biden on Friday, after the Houthis threatened to retaliate against the interests of both countries.
This military response risks causing a military “escalation” in the region, according to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. However, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken was on tour in the Middle East last week to call for avoiding a conflagration in the region linked to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.