(Hodeida) The United States and the United Kingdom have again struck Houthi targets in Yemen, in the province of Hodeida (west), the Yemeni rebels’ press agency said on Wednesday, with Washington and London not having did not immediately comment.
The strikes targeted the Ras Issa area in the town of Souleif, according to the Saba.net news agency, and an employee of a refinery in this locality, Alaa, assured AFP that he had heard two explosions.
Since November, the Houthi rebels have said they are targeting ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden that they consider linked to Israel in “solidarity” with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in the grip of the war between the Israeli army and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
Their attacks have forced many shipowners to suspend passage through this zone where 12% of world trade passes.
In response, Washington, which announced that it would once again designate them as a “terrorist” entity, set up a multinational coalition in December to protect maritime traffic.
This coalition having not until then allowed a stop to the attacks, the American and British forces, who had threatened the rebels to strike their positions if the latter did not put an end to their attacks, have since carried out several strikes on Yemen since mid-January.
The impact of these tensions in this area is heavy for world trade: maritime transport of containers through the Red Sea has fallen by almost 30% over one year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on Wednesday.