The US Department of Defense, the Pentagon, confirmed that US and British air force fighters carried out raids targeting sites belonging to the Houthi militia in Yemen on Friday 12 of January.
The raids targeted several Yemeni cities, including Hodeidah, Sanaa, Taiz, and Saada.
Reuters quoted a Houthi official saying that airstrikes were carried out on Sana'a, while witnesses said they heard the sound of three explosions in Sana'a.Earlier, American and British media outlets said that the United States and Britain are preparing to launch strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen, in response to the Houthi ongoing attacks in the Red Sea.
The Times quoted a British source as saying that the expected strikes against Al-Houthi will be "limited" in scope.British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's office in Downing Street has not yet responded to a request for comment, while the US Department of Defense and the White House have declined to comment on the report.
Sources in Sky News Arabia said that the Houthi militia cut off electricity to three districts in Hodeidah province, reports of Houthi military movements in the area, suggesting that a possible air strike was being prepared.
Three residents of the Yemeni city of Hodeidah told Reuters that the city has been on high alert since Thursday evening, with a heavy deployment of Houthi forces and the presence and movement of military vehicles. They reported that military operations are reportedly targeting Houthi locations and camps in Hodeidah.
Mohammed al-Attab, Al Jazeera's reporter in Sanaa, reported that Houthi officials issued a strong warning, stating that any attack by Western forces would be met with "an even stronger response."
He noted that this could involve escalating further, as the Houthis have threatened strikes against "aggressor countries." This, some suggest, could include targeting American and British bases in the region, or even broader actions like disrupting navigation in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea.
However, al-Attab emphasised that "the Houthis don't want this type of escalation," but feel compelled to continue their actions as a means of "preventing shipping to Israeli ports" in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Secretary Lloyd Austin of U.S. Defense said that the U.S. and British airstrikes in Yemen send a "clear message to the Houthis" that the group's attacks in the Red Sea will not be tolerated.In a statement, he said, "This action is intended to disrupt and degrade the Houthis' ability to endanger mariners and threaten global commerce in one of the world's most important waterways."
The US military said that the Houthis launched their twenty-seventh attack on shipping traffic since November 19, as they launched anti-ship ballistic missiles at international shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden.
Edited by Chloe Mansola
Image-Army Air Corps Apache Helicopters by Defence Imagery is licence under CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED
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