Britain, U.S. begin new strikes on Houthis
By Lolita C. Baldor and Tara Copp
WASHINGTON — The United States and Britain struck at least 30 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in a second wave of assaults meant to further disable Iran-backed groups that have relentlessly attacked American and international interests in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, U.S. officials told the Associated Press.
The latest strikes against the Houthis were launched by ships and fighter jets. The strikes follow an air assault in Iraq and Syria on Friday that targeted other Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan last weekend.
The Houthi targets were in 10 different locations and were struck by U.S. F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier and by American warships firing Tomahawk missiles from the Red Sea, the U.S. officials said.
Officials said the USS Gravely and the USS Carney, both Navy destroyers, launched missiles.
They were not authorized to publicly discuss the military operation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Saturday's strikes marked the third time the U.S. and Britain had conducted a large, joint operation to strike Houthi weapon launchers, radar sites and drones. But the Houthis have made it clear that they have no intention of scaling back their assault.
Earlier Saturday, an Iraqi militia official hinted at a desire to deescalate tensions in the Middle East following retaliatory strikes by the United States against dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Hussein al-Mosawi, spokesperson for Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the main Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, in an interview with the Associated Press in Baghdad condemned the U.S. strikes, saying Washington “must understand that every action elicits a reaction.” But he then struck a more conciliatory tone, saying that “we do not wish to escalate or widen regional tensions.”
OKLAHOMA
A 5.1 magnitude earthquake shook an area near Oklahoma City late Friday, followed by smaller quakes during the next several hours, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
No injuries were reported and damage appeared to be minimal, mostly items overturned or shaken from shelves inside homes, according to Lincoln County Deputy Emergency Management Director Charlotte Brown.
“Nothing significant … nothing other than lots of scared people,” Brown said.
NORTHERN IRELAND
An Irish nationalist made history Saturday by becoming Northern Ireland's first minister as the government returned to work after a two-year boycott by unionists.
Sinn Fein
Vice President Michelle O'Neill was named first minister in the government that under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday peace accord shares power equally between Northern Ireland's two main communities — British unionists who want to stay in the U.K., and Irish nationalists who seek to unite with Ireland.
Northern Ireland was established as a unionist, Protestantmajority part of the U.K. in 1921, following independence for the Republic of Ireland, so O'Neill's nomination was seen as a highly symbolic moment for nationalists.
“This is a historic day which represents a new dawn,”
O'Neill said. “That such a day would ever come would have been unimaginable to my parents and grandparents' generation.”
RUSSIA
More than two dozen people, mostly journalists, were detained Saturday at a protest in central Moscow, as wives and other relatives of Russian servicemen mobilized to fight in Ukraine called for their return, according to independent Russian news reports.
The relatives gathered to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, just outside the Kremlin walls. They marked 500 days since Russian President Vladimir Putin in September 2022 ordered a “partial mobilization” of up to 300,000 reservists following battlefield setbacks in Moscow's full-scale war against Ukraine.
The call-up was widely unpopular and prompted hundreds of thousands to flee abroad to avoid being drafted.
Wives and relatives of some of the reservists called up in 2022 have campaigned for them to be discharged and replaced with contract soldiers.
KENYA
Kenya's president says corruption and officials' incompetence allowed a liquid petroleum plant to operate in one of Nairobi's most crowded residential neighborhoods, where its explosion and fire killed three people and injured more than 280 others.
President William Ruto said the officials who gave licenses to the plant must be dismissed and prosecuted. Police are also looking for the site's owners.
At least 24 people were critically injured when the huge fireball erupted from the gas depot late Thursday and spread rapidly in Kenya's capital, burning homes and warehouses.