Last night, the UK and U.S. joined forces to launch a series of collective strikes on Houthi rebel sites in Yemen. The two countries accuse the Iranian-backed group of threatening UK ships through their targeting of international shipping in the Red Sea. As a result, Broadcasting Corporation journalist Andre Rhoden-Paul reports, the strikes were executed with the intention of self-defence. Meanwhile, according to Houthi officials, the UK and US will ‘pay a heavy price’ for such aggression against their people.
Previously, the Houthis, who maintain control over the majority of Yemen, argued that they were supporting Hamas by targeting ships heading to Israel. Consequently, the US-led strikes are the first of their kind to be executed on the group since such targeting began last year. To relinquish the Houthis’ military capabilities, the Royal Air Force Typhoons conducted two precision strikes on the airfield and another site used to launch drones and missiles over the Red Sea. Reports suggest more than 60 targets across 16 sites used by the group were struck in total.
Houthi spokesman, Mohammed Abdulsalam, argued the targeting was and will continue to affect Israeli ships or those heading to the ports of occupied Palestine. Declaring that there was no threat to international navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas, he emphasised that “there is absolutely no justification for this aggression against Yemen”. However, armed forces Minister James Heappy rejected this. He argued in favour of the necessity to disrupt the Houthis’ capacity to launch attacks on both US Navy Royal Navy warships and wider commercial shipping in the region.
Regarding the UK’s joint action with the US, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak argued that such strikes were considered necessary and proportionate towards protecting global shipping in the Red Sea. Given that the Houthi rebels have refused to cease their attacks in spite of repeated warnings from the international community, the Prime Minister emphasised that “this cannot stand”. Consequently, the joint attack was designed to degrade the Houthi military’s capabilities to continue threatening merchant shipping. The attacks were conducted with non-operational support from the Netherlands, Canada, and Bahrain
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