Houthis vow retaliation after air raids
YEMEN: The Houthi rebel group said Sunday that US and British air strikes “will not deter us” and vowed to fight back after dozens of targets were hit in retaliation for the iran-backed rebels’ repeated red sea attacks.
The joint air raids in Yemen late Saturday followed a separate wave of unilateral American strikes against Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria in response to a drone attack that killed three US soldiers in Jordan.
It is the third time that British and American forces have jointly targeted the Houthis, whose attacks in solidarity with Palestinians in war-battered Gaza have disrupted global trade.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the capital Sanaa and other rebel-held areas were targeted.
Saree reported a total of 48 air strikes and said on social media platform X that “these attacks will not deter us from our ... stance in support of the steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” where the Israel-Hamas war has raged since early October.
The latest strikes “will not pass without response and punishment,” Saree said.
Britain’s defense ministry said Royal Air Force Typhoon warplanes struck targets, including two ground control stations used to operate attack and reconnaissance drones.
Austin said that “coalition forces targeted 13 locations associated with the Houthis’ deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems, and radars.”
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Both the Iraqi and Syrian governments condemned the Friday strikes, while Tehran said they would “have no result other than intensifying tension and instability.”
Diplomatic sources have said the UN Security Council would convene Monday after Russia called for a meeting “over the threat to peace and safety created by US strikes on Syria and Iraq.”
However, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Tehran is ultimately responsible for the violence, telling the Sunday Times “we need to send the clearest possible signal to Iran that what they’re doing through their proxies is unacceptable.”