The US and UK carried out eight air strikes at different locations inside Yemen including the capital Sanaa at midnight on Monday January 22, a day after the Houthis claimed they attacked one of the US navy cargo ships in the Gulf of Aden.
Strikes coordinated with Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands, “targeted areas in Houthi-controlled Yemen used to attack international merchant vessels and US naval ships in the region,” the US Central Command (CENTCOM) claimed in a statement on Tuesday.
This was the fifth major attack inside Yemen carried out by the US and UK since January 11 when the countries initiated the bombing campaign of Yemen. The US and UK have claimed that locations targeted were used by Ansar Allah (also called the Houthis) to launch attacks against ships navigating in the Red Sea.
According to CNN, the strikes in Yemen have been termed as Operation Poseidon Archer by the US Department of Defense with the objective of making it look different from the so-called Operation Prosperity Guardian, an maritime alliance of 20 odd countries led by the US. Prosperity Guardian was formed to defend the “freedom of navigation” in the Red Sea following the Houthi declaration of targeting all Israel bound ships crossing Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea.
The US claims that Houthi attacks on the ships, around 30 since November, have impacted the global trade and forced the shipping companies to take longer and costlier routes through Africa coast.
Monday’s attacks on Houthis followed their claim that they successfully carried out an attack on the US naval cargo ship Ocean Jazz in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday. The US Central Command has however, denied any such attack on Ocean Jazz calling the Houthi claims false.
Yahya Saree, spokesperson of the Yemeni Armed Forces announced the attacks on Ocean Jazz and reiterated that his country will make sure that “any new aggression will not go unpunished” as responses to the US and UK attacks are inevitable.
Houthis have declared they will target all the ships going to Israel if its war in Gaza is not stopped. Israel has killed over 25,000 Palestinians and injured over 63,000 in its indiscriminate bombings and ground offensive inside Gaza since October 7.
“The Yemeni armed forces confirm their continued efforts to prevent Israeli ships, or ships heading to the ports of occupied Palestine until the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in Gaza is lifted,” said Saree.
Going against its own declared position that Israeli war in Gaza should not acquire a regional dimension, the US launched its joint strikes with the UK against Houthis in Yemen on January 11. It has since carried out several rounds of bombings inside Yemen.
Though admitting that the strikes against Houthis are not working, US president Joe Biden asserted on January 19 that they will continue nevertheless even at the risk of escalating the war in Gaza.
The Biden administration has also designated the Houthis as a terrorist organization going against its own decision to withdraw the tag in February 2021 taken after tremendous global pressure.
Leveling Houthis as a terrorist organization makes it difficult for the international aid agencies to work with the group which governs a large part of Yemen reeling under a severe humanitarian crisis due to war and blockade of the country’s borders imposed by the Saudi Arabia-led and US-backed international coalition since 2015.
