US carries out fresh strike against Yemen’s Houthi rebels over rising tensions in Red Sea

SANAA: The United States carried out a fresh strike Saturday on a Houthi rebel target in Yemen, the US military said after the Iran-backed militants warned of further attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

The strike on a Houthi radar site came a day after US and British forces hit scores of targets across the country, heightening fears that Israel’s war with Palestinian militant group Hamas could engulf the wider region. Violence involving Iran-aligned groups in Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria has surged since the war in Gaza began in early October.

The Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Gaza, have carried out a growing number of missile and drone attacks in the key Red Sea international trade route. They say they are targeting Israeli-linked shipping

Around 12 percent of global trade normally passes through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea entrance between southwest Yemen and Djibouti. But since mid-November the rebel attacks have affected trade flows when supply strains are already putting upward pressure on inflation globally.

The Houthi attacks have followed Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel which sparked the war still raging in the besieged Gaza Strip.

US Central Command said Saturday’s strike was “a follow-on action on a specific military target” related to the previous day’s strikes.

The Houthis’ official media earlier said Al-Dailami airbase in Yemen’s rebel-held capital of Sanaa had been struck in the latest bombardment.

Britain, the United States and eight allies said strikes on Friday aimed to “de-escalate tensions”, but the Houthis vowed to continue their attacks.

Analysts said the Western strikes are unlikely to stop the rebels.

They will “diminish but not end the Houthi threat to shipping,” said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The Houthis withstood thousands of air raids while battling a Saudi-led coalition for more than seven years. They earlier fought six wars against Yemen’s government between 2004 and 2010.

“All American-British interests have become legitimate targets” following the strikes, the rebels’ Supreme Political Council said.

Hussein al-Ezzi, the Houthis’ deputy foreign minister, said the United States and Britain would “have to prepare to pay a heavy price.”

The rebels have controlled much of Yemen since a civil war erupted in 2014 and are part of an Iran-aligned “axis of resistance” against Israel and its allies.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all sides “not to escalate” in the interest of regional peace and stability, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.