US, UK launch airstrikes on Yemen
SANAA, Yemen — The United States and the United Kingdom have staged airstrikes on several places in Yemen in a bid to downgrade Houthi rebels’ capability to conduct attacks on maritime shipping.
AFP journalists heard loud explosions in the capital Sanaa and the port city of Hodeida overnight from Thursday to Friday.
The Houthi-controlled television channel Al-Masirah said strikes had also targeted telecom infrastructure in the town of Taez.
It reported that “several” people were killed or injured in the strikes.
It was not immediately possible to independently verify the toll.
The British defense ministry said in a statement that its planes launched strikes in “a joint operation with US forces against Houthi military facilities to degrade their ability to persist with their attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.”
The ministry said intelligence had indicated that two sites near Hodeida had been involved in the attacks on shipping, “with a number of buildings identified as housing drone ground control facilities and providing storage for very long-range drones, as well as surface-to-air weapons.”
Further south, another site “had also been identified as being involved in the command and control of their antishipping campaign,” it added.
The US Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement that a total of 13 Houthi-held sites were targeted, adding the strikes were “necessary to protect our forces, ensure freedom of navigation, and make international waters safer and more secure.”
Since January, the United States and Britain have launched retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the rebels’ attacks in the vital waterways.
But the strikes have done little to deter the Houthis, who have vowed to target US and British vessels as well as all ships heading to Israeli ports.
Ships hit
Since November, the Houthis have been attacking shipping around the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with the militant group Hamas since October 7.
The Iran-backed Houthis said Wednesday that they had attacked a Greek-owned bulk carrier and several other vessels in response to Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.