(Washington) The US military announced Friday that it had struck three underground storage facilities in Yemen used by Houthi rebels, who have been carrying out attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
U.S. forces “conducted self-defense strikes against three Houthi underground storage facilities in areas controlled by Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen,” the U.S. Middle East Command reported ( Centcom) in a press release.
According to the same source, the American army also destroyed four drones on Friday and identified on the same day the firing of four anti-ship ballistic missiles by the Houthis towards the Red Sea.
“There were no injuries or damage reported by the United States, the coalition or merchant ships,” Centcom added.
The Houthis began attacking ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea in November in what they say is a sign of solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is at war with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
The rebel group says it targets Israeli, British and American boats, as well as ships heading to Israeli ports, disrupting maritime traffic on this key trade route off Yemen.
These attacks have driven up insurance costs for ships transiting the Red Sea and led many shipping companies to prefer the much longer passage that bypasses the southern tip of the African continent.