The United States and the United Kingdom, supported by Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands, took significant military action, firing missiles against several Houthi targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Thursday as a response to Houthi attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea, CNN reported today.
The strikes hit Al-Dailami Air Base north of Sanaa, an airport in the port city of the Hodeida, a camp east of Saada, an airport in the city of Taiz, and an airport near Hajjah, according to Al-Massirah, the Yemeni News Channel.
US President Joe Biden gave the order for strikes justifying them as a “direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea.”
According to a military spokesman for the Houthis, 73 strikes left six soldiers injured and five dead.
He warned of “punishment or retaliation” for the strikes, and that the organization would keep attacking ships that were sailing toward Israel.
Ali al-Qahoum, a senior Houthi official, also promised retaliatory action, tweeting: “The battle will be bigger . . . and beyond the imagination and expectation of the Americans and the British.”
Since October, the Houthis had targeted ships destined for Israel operating near the opening of the Red Sea, one of the busiest commerce routes in the world, “in support of Hamas.”
Russia requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to address the strikes, according to Russian News Agency Tass.
The U.N. Security Council voted on a resolution on Wednesday urging the Houthis to immediately stop their attacks and subtly denouncing their arms supplier, Iran. By a vote of 11-0, with four votes against—from Algeria, Mozambique, China, and Russia—it was adopted, AP reported.
In the last three months of war against Gaza, there has been an increase in violence in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Iran-backed armed groups operate and US forces are present.