Yemen | Threat of escalation after US-British strikes

(Hodeida) Houthi rebels threatened Friday to intensify their attacks on ships off the coast of Yemen, after American-British strikes against their positions left 16 dead, according to the Houthi television channel.

This toll announced by the al-Massira channel is one of the heaviest suffered by these pro-Iranian insurgents since the United States and the United Kingdom began targeting their installations in January to protect navigation in the Red Sea. and in the Gulf of Aden.

“US-British aggression will not deter us from continuing our operations […]. We will respond to escalation with escalation,” said Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi political bureau, on his X account.

The joint strikes were carried out against 13 rebel sites to prevent future attacks, the US Middle East Command (CENTCOM) said earlier.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, for his part, affirmed that these operations were “self-defense in the face of the permanent threat posed by the Houthis”, affirming that the Houthis had carried out 197 attacks since November.

AFP journalists heard loud explosions overnight in the coastal city of Hodeidah (West) as well as in the capital Sanaa.

According to the al-Massira channel, controlled by the rebels, strikes also targeted telecommunications infrastructure in Taiz.

The media said Friday that the strikes in this city left 16 dead and 35 injured, without specifying whether they were civilians or Houthi fighters.

Al-Massira broadcast images of men it said were injured in a strike on a Hodeida radio station building, and others receiving treatment in hospital. AFP was not able to independently verify the authenticity of these videos or the reported death toll.

An employee in one of the city’s hospitals told AFP, on condition of anonymity, of having received victims, “most of whom” were soldiers, without being able to provide a precise assessment.

According to the British Ministry of Defense, intelligence “confirmed” that two sites in Hodeidah were involved in attacks on maritime traffic, with houses being used as drone cockpits and places to store long-term flying devices. scope.

Another site located south of the city was also used to carry out drone attacks against international maritime traffic, according to the same source.

Ships hit

Since November, the Houthis have carried out dozens of attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been at war for nearly eight months against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

Hamas, the Yemeni Houthi rebels and the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah are part of the “axis of resistance”, a grouping of armed movements hostile to Israel and the United States, supported by Iran.

The United States, a close ally of Israel, set up a multinational force in December to protect navigation in this strategic area and launched the first strikes in Yemen in January, with the help of the United Kingdom.

But these strikes have not deterred the Houthis, who control large swaths of the country and say they are now also targeting American and British ships.

On Wednesday, they claimed responsibility for the attack on a bulk carrier and several other vessels off the coast of Yemen, saying it was a response to Israeli strikes on Rafah, a Palestinian town that has become the epicenter of the war in the Gaza strip. The US Middle East Command earlier said a Greek ship was damaged by missiles fired by the Houthis.

The Houthis also said they had shot down six American MQ-9 Reaper drones, which cost around $30 million each.