Fresh strikes hit Yemen’s Huthis after more Red Sea attack threat
FRESH strikes targeted Yemen’s Huthis on Saturday, security sources and the United States military said, after the Iran-backed rebels warned of further attacks on Red Sea shipping.
The strikes came a day after US and British forces hit scores of targets across the country, heightening fears that Israel’s war with Palestinian Hamas militants could engulf the region.
Violence involving Iranaligned groups in Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria has surged since the war in Gaza began in early October.
The Huthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Gaza, have carried out a growing number of missile and drone attacks on what they deem Israeli-linked shipping on the key Red Sea trade route.
Around 12 percent of global trade normally passes through it, but since mid-November the attacks have prompted many shipping firms to take the longer route around the tip of Africa, disrupting supply chains and putting upward pressure on inflation.
The Huthi campaign followed Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel which sparked the war raging in the besieged Gaza Strip.
US Central Command said its forces attacked a Huthi radar site early on Saturday as “a follow-on action” related to the previous day’s strikes.
Later on Saturday, a Huthiallied military source said that a site on the outskirts of the Red Sea port city of Hodeida which the rebels used to launch a rocket was hit.
A police source confirmed the latest strike, which a US defense official said was not carried out by the US.
The Huthis’ official media earlier said the Al-Dailami airbase in Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa had been struck in the latest bombardment.
On Saturday morning, rebel forces in north Sanaa had shut the area around the airbase and only residents with permits from neighbourhood chiefs were allowed to enter.
Glass was scattered around the buildings surrounding the base, with some residents having fled to areas considered to be safer.
United Nations special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg urged “all involved” to avoid actions that would endanger maritime trade and “fuel regional tensions at this critical time.”
Grundberg noted “with serious concern” the impact of the “increasingly precarious regional context” on Yemen and called for diplomacy to be prioritized.
Britain, the US and eight allies said strikes on Friday aimed to “de-escalate tensions,” but the Huthis vowed to continue their attacks.
Analysts said the Western strikes are unlikely to stop the rebels.
The Huthis withstood thousands of air raids while battling a Saudi-led coalition for more than seven years.
“All American-British interests have become legitimate targets” following Friday’s strikes, the rebels’ Supreme Political Council said.
Hussein al-Ezzi, the Huthis’ deputy foreign minister, said the US and Britain must “prepare to pay a heavy price.”
(AFP)