(Washington) The United States struck 15 Houthi targets in Yemen on Friday, the American army announced, after these rebels close to Iran reported raids on four provinces of this country at war.
The US military has regularly targeted the Houthis in recent months. Claiming to act in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the rebels target ships they believe are linked to Israel, the United States or the United Kingdom in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, essential sea lanes for the global trade.
American forces “today carried out strikes on 15 Houthi targets in areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthis”, a rebel movement supported by Iran, said the American military Command for the Middle East (Centcom) on x.
These strikes were carried out on targets including Houthi “military” infrastructure, Centcom said, adding that they were carried out to “protect freedom of navigation” and make “international waters more secure”.
Earlier, Al-Massirah, the Houthi television channel, reported American and British strikes targeting four provinces of Yemen controlled by the rebels, in power in part of the territory in the context of a war which has ravaged this country for a decade.
“This aggression against the capital and Yemeni provinces after solidarity marches with Lebanon and Gaza is a desperate attempt to terrorize our people,” a Houthi leader told Al-Massirah.
According to Al-Massirah, four strikes hit the capital Sanaa and seven hit the port city of Hodeida, where AFP correspondents heard explosions. Other strikes targeted the provinces of Dhamar and Al-Bayda.
The main entry point for goods and humanitarian aid for areas under the control of Yemeni rebels, Hodeida has also been targeted several times by the Israeli army, after Houthi attacks targeting Israel.
The Houthis are part of what Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy, calls the “axis of resistance”, which brings together other allies of Palestinian Hamas such as Iraqi groups or Lebanese Hezbollah.