Houthi rebels have threatened to step up attacks on shipping off Yemen, after deadly strikes by US and British forces on their positions. “American-British aggression will not dissuade us from continuing our military operations in favor of Palestine. We will respond to escalation with escalation,” said Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a member of the movement’s political bureau, on his X account this Friday, May 31.
The forces of the two Western countries carried out air strikes in Yemen against Houthi rebel positions during the night from Thursday to Friday. These attacks left at least 16 dead and 35 injured, according to the Houthi television channel. The joint strikes targeted 13 Houthi sites, to prevent future attacks by these Iranian-backed rebels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the US Middle East Military Command (Centcom) said.
“British forces took part in a joint operation with US forces aimed at undermining the military capabilities of the Houthis who continue to carry out attacks on international shipping” off the coast of Yemen, the Ministry of Defense had previously said in a brief communicated. Intelligence, reported by AFP, “confirmed” that two sites in the western coastal city of Hodeida were involved in attacks on maritime traffic, with houses serving as drone pilothouses and locations for store long-range flying devices, according to the same source.
Loud explosions
Another site located south of the city was also used to carry out drone attacks against international maritime traffic, according to this source. The rebel-controlled al-Massira television channel did not specify whether the victims of the strikes were civilians or Houthi fighters. It broadcast footage of men it said were injured in a strike on a Hodeida radio station building, and others receiving treatment in hospital. AFP was not able to independently verify the authenticity of these videos or the reported death toll.
An employee in one of the city’s hospitals told AFP, on condition of anonymity, of having received victims, “most of whom” were soldiers, without being able to provide a precise assessment. The strikes were heard during the night, notably by witnesses in several areas controlled by the rebels. AFP journalists heard loud explosions in the night in Hodeidah but also in the capital Sanaa. According to the al-Massira channel, strikes also targeted telecommunications infrastructure in Taiz.
Ships hit
Since November, the Houthis have carried out dozens of attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been at war for nearly eight months against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. The latter, the Yemeni Houthi rebels and the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah are part of the “axis of resistance”, a grouping of armed movements hostile to Israel and the United States, supported by Iran.
The United States, a close ally of Israel, set up a multinational force in December to protect navigation in this strategic area and launched the first strikes in Yemen in January, with the help of the United Kingdom. But they have not deterred the Houthis, who control large swaths of the country and say they are now also targeting American and British ships.
On Wednesday, they claimed responsibility for the attack on a bulk carrier and several other vessels off the coast of Yemen, saying it was a response to Israeli strikes on Rafah, a Palestinian town that has become the epicenter of the war in the Gaza strip. The US Middle East Command earlier said a Greek ship was damaged by missiles fired by the Houthis.