The US and Britain have launched attacks against Houthi positions in Yemen after the militiamen defied the warning not to continue their raids in the Red Sea. Other US-allied countries are also involved, including the Netherlands, Australia, Canada and Bahrain, which are expected to provide logistics, intelligence and other support.
The attacks, a US official told CNN, were carried out in particular with fighter planes and Tomahawk missiles. Over a dozen Houthi targets were hit by missiles launched from air, land and sea (with the USS Florida submarine) and were chosen to weaken the Houthis’ ability to attack shipping in the Red Sea. These include radar systems, depots and launch sites for drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
“Today, on my orders, the U.S. military forces, together with the United Kingdom and with the support of Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlandshave successfully conducted attacks against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to jeopardize freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways” (the Red Sea, ed.): Joe Biden makes it known in a note, explaining that this is the “direct response to the Houthi attacks” and that it will not hesitate “to take further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international trade if necessary.”
“We have not targeted any country in the world except Israel, the official spokesperson of the Houthis, Muhammad Abdul Salam, tells Al Jazeera. The military has given an initial response and we will expand it very soon. We will continue to target Israeli ships headed towards them until the end of the aggression against Gaza.” The attacks caused “the death of five fighters and the wounding of six others”, according to the Houthi spokesperson, reported by Tass. For Muhammad Abdul Salam, the USA and Great Britain have launched 73 attacks on Yemeni territory. “They will not go unanswered.”
“The UK and US have carried out targeted attacks on Houthi military targets in Yemen. The safety of UK vessels and freedom of navigation through the Red Sea is paramount and that is why we are intervening,” he wrote on the British Foreign Secretary, David Cameron. “As the UN Security Council has made clear, the Houthis must stop attacks in the Red Sea,” the message concludes.
According to Born, US-led attacks they are “defensive”. “These attacks were defensive and designed to preserve freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways. Houthi attacks must stop,” said Dylan White, a spokesman for the Western military alliance.
USA-GB: “Attacks in Yemen to ease tensions in the Red Sea”. The statement together with 8 other countries including Canada and Germany
The US, UK and eight allied countries said joint airstrikes launched on Houthi rebel targets in Yemen aimed to restore “stability in the Red Sea”.
“Our goal remains to ease tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea,” the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and South Korea. “But let our message be clear: we will not hesitate to defend human lives and ensure the free flow of trade in one of the world’s most critical waterways, in the face of continuing threats,” the statement continues.
In the statement, the 10 countries also said that “the precision strikes were intended to disrupt and degrade capabilities that the Houthis use to threaten global trade and the lives of international sailors.”
The statement goes on to underline that the Houthi attacks against merchant ships that began in mid-November “constitute an international challenge” and “today’s action demonstrates a shared commitment to freedom of navigation, international trade and the defense of sailors’ lives from illegal and unjustifiable attacks”.
Reactions to attacks
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia follows with great concern the military operations taking place in the Red Sea region and the airstrikes on a number of sites in the Republic of Yemen,” read a statement from the Foreign Ministry of Saudi Arabia. Riadwhich calls for “self-control and to avoid escalation”.
“This aggression indicates the decision to expand the area of the conflict outside the Strip. This will have consequences”, said the representative of Hamas, Sami Abu Zhouri. “The aggression of the USA and Great Britain against sectors of the Yemeni army, because it has sided with Gaza, is – he underlined – a provocation against the Palestinian nation”.
Moscow condemned attacks against Houthi rebels, denouncing an action that leads to an “escalation” and which has “destructive objectives”. “The US attacks in Yemen are a new example of the Anglo-Saxons’ distortion of UN Security Council resolutions and total disregard for international law in the name of escalation in the region to achieve their destructive goals,” he wrote the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry on Telegram. Maria Zakharova.
Russia has called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, announced the Russian permanent mission to the UN on Telegram, as reported by Tass. “Russia has requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council on January 12, in relation to the US and British attacks on Yemen,” the mission said, noting that the meeting is scheduled for 10:00 local time ( 4:00 pm in Italy).
The spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Nasser Kanani, “strongly condemned the US and British attacks on various cities in Yemenconsidering them an arbitrary action, a clear violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yemen and a violation of international law and regulations.” As Tehran’s Foreign Ministry reports on X, Kanani stated that “the only result of the attacks will create instability in the region.” Linking the raids to US support for Israel, the official called on the international community to “prevent the war from spreading.”
“All of these actions represent a disproportionate use of force,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “They want a bloodbath in the Red Sea,” added the Turkish leader in a speech broadcast by state TV TRT after taking part in Friday prayers in a mosque in Istanbul.
Chigi sources, participation in attack in Yemen not requested. Request to sign the declaration but Rome did not sign
Italy was asked to sign the joint declaration with the United States, the United Kingdom and other allied countries (which the government in Rome did not sign) but was never asked to participate in the bombings in Yemen. This was reported by sources at Palazzo Chigi. “We work – explain the same sources – to keep tension low in the Red Sea and we are committed to the European coalition to guarantee free movement of ships in the area”.
“We are committed to guaranteeing freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, we participate in the European mission Atalanta and we will also ask that this mission can have broader competences or give rise to a new European mission to guarantee the free circulation of goods – said the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister, Antonio Tajani – We were informed by the United States of the night’s attack several hours in advance but we cannot, because the Constitution does not allow it, send or act in war actions without a debate in Parliament. And It is right to defend freedom of navigation.”
The EU aims to send 3 ships to the Red Sea against Houthis
The European Union External Action Service (EEAS) has reportedly presented its proposal for a blue-sky mission in the Red Sea to defend international trade to the 27 EU member countries, in which it is proposed to deploy ” at least three destroyers or anti-aircraft frigates with multi-mission capabilities” for at least “one year”. The proposal, presented before the US and UK attacks in Yemen, notes that “the exact size and composition of the operation will be subject to further operational planning” – the doubt is whether the EU mission, as conceived, is born ‘old’.