UK and US launch strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen
Britain and the United States have launched missile and air strikes against Yemen’s Houthi militants, prompting rebel officials to warn that the allies would pay a “heavy price” in response.
Jets and warships struck dozens of targets overnight in retaliation against weeks of Houthi drone and missile strikes on commercial shipping in one of the world’s busiest waterways.
Rishi Sunak said Britain was standing up “for freedom of navigation and the free flow of trade”, while Joe Biden said the strikes were a response to “unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea”.
The US Air Force said it had hit more than 60 targets at 16 sites, including “command-and-control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities and air defence radar systems”.
Houthi television said strikes hit the capital Sana’a, as well as the cities of Hodeida and Saada.
The strikes began at around 2.30am (11.30pm GMT) with American jets flying from the carrier USS Eisenhower and Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a submarine and other warships.
Four RAF Typhoon jets supported by a refuelling tanker flew from Akrotiri in Cyprus to hit two targets with laser-guided 500lb Paveway bombs. The first, in Bani in north-western Yemen, was described as a facility to launch reconnaissance and attack drones. The second, an airfield at Abbs, was described as a launch site for cruise missiles and drones.
James Heappey, the armed forces minister, said the strikes were legitimate and were in self-defence.
“Whatever you think of the Houthis’ cause and their justification… we cannot allow them to seek to choke off global trade as a ransom to achieve whatever their political and diplomatic aims are,” he told the BBC.
The Iran-backed Houthis said in total the allied strikes had killed five people and wounded six.
The movement said they would expand their response to the attacks “very soon”, without giving further details.
Hussein al-Ezzi, a Houthi official in their foreign ministry, said there had been “a massive aggressive attack by American and British ships, submarines and warplanes”.
“America and Britain will undoubtedly have to prepare to pay a heavy price and bear all the dire consequences of this blatant aggression,” he said.
The Houthis began attacking and seizing ships in mid-November, saying they were acting in support of Hamas and would not back down until Israel stopped fighting in Gaza.
There have been at least 26 attacks so far, prompting a lot of traffic to avoid the Red Sea and instead take longer, more costly routes around the Cape of Good Hope.
Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the Houthis’ chief negotiator and spokesman, accused America and Britain of having “committed foolishness with this treacherous aggression”.
“They were wrong if they thought that they would deter Yemen from supporting Palestine and Gaza,” he wrote online. Houthi “targeting will continue to affect Israeli ships or those heading to the ports of occupied Palestine”, he wrote.
Oil prices jumped by more than 2 per cent in trading after the strikes.
Saudi Arabia, which has led a military campaign against the Houthis since 2015, called for “restraint and avoiding escalation” following the US and UK strikes. The official Saudi Press Agency said the Gulf kingdom was watching the operation with “great concern”.
Yemen has been blighted by war and political crisis for more than a decade and is regarded as one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises.
Protests in 2011 inspired by the Arab Spring, forced Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president, to resign and in the ensuing turmoil Houthi rebels seized much of the country.
Saudi-led forces intervened to support the internationally recognised government and years of fighting has also included activity by al-Qaeda and Islamic State jihadist groups.
At least 150,000 people are estimated to have died in the civil war and three quarters of the population are judged to need some form of aid.
