2024-01-12 03:57:05
The United States and the United Kingdom launched this Thursday a joint military attack against targets of the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The offensive ordered by Washington and London against several rebel-controlled provinces They occur after months of attacks by the Houthis against international flag vessels that used the route of the Red Sea.
And the Houthis support Hamas in the war that broke out in Gaza on October 7 after the attack that the Palestinian militia launched against Israel and which left 1,200 dead on the Israeli side.
A Yemeni fighter, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, fires his weapon during clashes with Houthi rebels on the Kassara front, June 20, 2021, near Marib, Yemen. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, file)
Since then, the rebels They warned that they would attack ships destined for Israelalthough it is not clear that all the ships affected by their offensive were heading to this country.
The Houthis, who since 2015 have sought to take control of Yemen – a country that is right at the gates of the Red Sea – have launched missiles and drones against cargo ships that were trying to cross the Suez Canal bound for the West from the East and vice versa. .
These attacks They forced five large companiesincluding the oil company British Petroleum (BP) and the shipping companies MSC, CMA CGM, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, to use other, much longer trade routes to protect their crews, ships and goods, causing disruptions in international maritime transport.
What is known about the US and UK offensive in Yemen?
Until now they are not known specific details on the objectives achieved by the United States and the United Kingdom, but attacks have been reported in the capital, Sana’a, and in the town of Al-Hudaydah, the Houthi port stronghold on the Red Sea.
The offensive is carried out from planes, ships and submarines, according to a US official told Reuters.
Targets included logistics centers, air defense systems and weapons depots.
Meanwhile, a Houthi official confirmed on X, formerly Twitter, that attacks have been carried out throughout Yemen.
“The US-Zionist-British aggression against Yemen launches several raids on the capital Sanaa, Hudaydah governorate, Saada and Dhamar,” Abdul Qader al-Mortada posted.
The UK attacks were carried out by aircraft flying from Akrotiri in Cyprus.
Rishi Sunakthe British Prime Minister, stated in a written statement that The Royal Air Force was involved in attacks on “facilities used by Houthi rebels in Yemen.”
“The United Kingdom will always defend freedom of navigation and the free flow of trade,” he said. “Therefore, we have taken limited, necessary and proportionate measures in self-defense, together with the United States with non-operational support from the Netherlands, Canada and Bahrain against targets linked to these attacks, to degrade the military capabilities of the Houthis and protect the global maritime transport.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden at the start of a North Atlantic Council meeting, during the NATO summit, on July 11, 2023, in Vilnius, Lithuania. (Paul Ellis/Pool Photo via AP, File)Paul Ellis – Pool AFP
Meanwhile, the American president, Joe Bidenalso in a written statement published at the same time, argued that Thursday’s action was “defensive”.
Biden added that the United States and its allies “will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to jeopardize freedom of navigation on one of the world’s most critical trade routes.”
He also warned about possible additional actions. “I will not hesitate to take additional steps to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary,” Biden said.
For his part, the Houthi deputy foreign minister, Hussein al-Izzisaid on a Yemeni television station that the United States and the United Kingdom “will pay a high price” for this “blatant aggression.”
How have the Houthis attacked Israeli targets?
Following the start of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, Houthi rebels fired dozens of missiles and drones into Israeli territory.
The United States said its warships in the Red Sea intercepted some of them, while others fell into the Red Sea or into Egyptian territory.
In November 2023, the Houthi rebels They seized a cargo ship in the Red Sea that they said was Israeli and they took him to a place off the coast of Yemen.
Israel said the ship was not its own and that there were no Israelis among its crew, but unconfirmed reports suggested the ship may have had an Israeli owner.
Since December 3, the Houthis have attacked several commercial vessels in the Red Sea with drones and ballistic missiles fired from the coast of Yemen, which they occupy.
American, British and French warships They have intercepted many of these projectilesbut several ships were hit.
Mediterranean Shipping Company, the world’s largest shipping company, said it is diverting its ships from the Red Sea. The French company CMA CGM, the Danish shipping company Maersk, the German Hapag-Lloyd and the oil company BP also did so.
The US military’s Central Command said: “These attacks, while launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran.”
That’s when the US proposed a naval task force to protect commercial shipping against further Houthi attacks.
Who are the Houthi rebels and what is their goal?
The Houthis are an armed group in Yemen of the country’s Shiite Muslim minority, the Zaidis.
The group was formed in the 1990s to combat what they considered the corruption of then-president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
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