The US military carried out a new strike on Saturday against Houthi rebel sites in Yemen after the latter increased their threats against international maritime traffic in the Red Sea.
Early Saturday, the Houthi channel al-Masirah reported strikes on at least one site in the capital Sanaa. “The US-British enemy targets the capital, Sanaa, with a [certain] number of raids,” al-Masirah communicated on his X account (formerly Twitter), quoting his correspondent in the city.
Then, the United States Central Military Command (CENTCOM) confirmed an American strike around 3:45 a.m. local Saturday (7:45 p.m. Quebec time) “against a radar site in Yemen.”
In the context of the war between Israel and Hamas, tension has risen in the Red Sea in recent weeks with Houthi attacks targeting maritime traffic in solidarity with the Gaza Strip.
Early Friday, American and British strikes targeted military sites held by the Houthis, who control large areas of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, reviving fears of a regional spillover of the war in Gaza triggered by the attack without precedent carried out by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7.
US President Joe Biden had threatened the Houthis with further strikes on rebel positions if the latter did not stop their firing in the Red Sea.
Houthi rebels have threatened to retaliate against strikes carried out on Friday by the United States and the United Kingdom in Yemen by attacking the interests of these two countries, now considered “legitimate targets”.
However, after the British and American strikes on Friday, the Houthis fired “at least one missile” which, however, did not hit any ships, the American army indicated before the Saturday morning strike carried out by the destroyer USS Carney using missiles. Tomahawk.
At the UN, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had earlier called on “all parties concerned to avoid an escalation […] in the interest of peace and stability in the Red Sea and in the entire region,” according to its spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.
Multiple strikes
The Houthi movement is part of the “axis of resistance” established by Iran, which brings together groups hostile to Israel in the region, notably Lebanese Hezbollah and armed groups in Iraq and Syria.
Friday’s American and British strikes, “73 raids”, targeted military sites in Sanaa and in the governorates of Hodeida (west), Taiz (south), Hajjah (north-west) and Saada (north), said more earlier the military spokesperson of the Houthis while the American army had mentioned 30 military positions targeted out of a total of more than 150 strikes.
Joe Biden spoke for his part of an operation carried out “successfully”, evoking a “defensive” action to protect international trade in particular.
Blaming the Houthis for ignoring “repeated warnings from the international community”, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the strikes as “necessary” measures. […] in self-defense.
In a joint statement, Washington, London and eight of their allies including Australia, Canada and Bahrain stressed that their objective was “de-escalation” in the Red Sea.
But in Moscow, the Kremlin condemned Western strikes “illegitimate from the point of view of international law”, just like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking of a “disproportionate” response.
And at a meeting of the UN Security Council, Russia’s representative, Vassili Nebenzia, denounced a “blatant aggression” and a “massive strike” against “the population of the country as a whole”.
American Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned that no ship was safe from the threat.
“We cannot tolerate thugs harassing international transport,” he told the Telegraph the British Defense Minister, Grant Shapps, calling on Iran for its “proxies” in the region, such as the Houthis or Hezbollah, to “cease their activities”.
During an interview with Liu Jianchao, head of the international division of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, stressed “the importance of maintaining and defending the rights and freedoms of navigation in the Red Sea” while avoiding “a further escalation”.
12% of world trade
The Houthi attacks, carried out with missiles and drones, have pushed many shipowners to abandon the Red Sea corridor between Europe and Asia, at the cost of an increase in transport costs and times, the latest being Friday the Danish shipping company Torm.
To deal with this, Washington set up a multinational coalition in December to protect maritime traffic in this area through which 12% of world trade passes.
However, the Houthis continued their operations and launched 18 drones and three missiles on Tuesday which were shot down by three American destroyers, a British ship and combat planes. The British government has called it the “largest attack” by Yemeni rebels to date.
Earlier this week, the UN Security Council demanded an “immediate” end to their attacks and Washington warned of reprisals in the event of further attacks in the Red Sea. But on Thursday, the Houthis fired another anti-ship missile. And the next morning, American and British strikes rang out.
Iran, key supporter of the Houthis and enemy no 1 of Israel, then condemned a “flagrant violation of the sovereignty” of Yemen. On Friday, in Sanaa, the capital of the country controlled by the Houthis, hundreds of thousands of people protested against the American and British strikes, chanting: “Death to America, death to Israel”.