LAST UPDATE | 22 Jan
THE US AND British militaries have for a second time conducted joint airstrikes targeting Houthi missile sites in Yemen.
This is the second time the two allies have conducted retaliatory strikes on an array of the rebels’ missile-launching capabilities.
UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said the latest round of strikes were in “self-defence” as attacks on ships continue in the Red Sea, adding that the US-UK assault would “deal another blow” to the Iranian-backed militants.
The US and UK said today’s joint action was in response to continued attacks on shipping.
The strikes were against “eight Huthi targets in Yemen in response to the Huthis’ continued attacks against international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea,” Washington and London said in a joint statement with other countries that supported the military action.
Earlier this month, the US and British forces bombed more than a dozen sites used by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen in a massive retaliatory strike using warship-launched Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets.
That was the first US military response to what has been a persistent campaign of Houthi drone and missile attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict in October.
The Houthis claimed to have begun striking an area of the Red Sea between Yemen and east Africa, which is a key international trade route, in a bid to end Israel’s air and ground offensive against Hamas.
The Houthis’ media office said in an online statement today that several American and UK raids targeted Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.
An Associated Press journalist in Sanaa also heard aircraft flying above Sanaa tonight.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden spoke this evening, with the two leaders undertaking to “continue efforts alongside international partners to deter and disrupt” attacks by Houthis.
Since the eruption of the conflict in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October, the Houthis have carried out a growing number of attacks on the trade route.
Its slogan includes the words “death to America”, “death to Israel” and “a curse upon the Jews”.
Tehran has been accused of providing arms, training and financial support to the Houthis.
On 9 January, the Houthis launched what London called their most significant attack yet, with US and British forces shooting down 18 drones and three missiles.
The final straw for the Western allies appeared to come early on 11 January when the US military said the Houthis fired an anti-ship ballistic missile into a shipping lane in the Gulf of Aden.
That night, the US and British forces launched their first joint airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Last week, Washington re-designated the Iran-backed Houthi rebels as a “terrorist” entity for their attacks on merchant vessels.
The Houthis struck a US-owned bulk cargo carrier in the wake of the designation announcement, and vowed to continue attacks they say are in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
There has been an almost-daily assault on Houthi missile launchers by US fighter jets and ship-based Tomahawks over the past week.
The intensifying attacks have caused shipping companies to divert around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
Includes reporting by Press Association and - © AFP 2024
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