A joint UK-U.S. airstrike at Yemen’s Houthi group has claimed the lives of 16 people leaving 35 injured on Thursday, making the hit the highest publicly acknowledged death toll in retaliation to the group’s attacks on shipping.
Anonymous U.S. officials said that the strike managed to hit underground facilities, missile launchers, and control sites. The Guardian quoted. U.S. Central Command posted on X that they: “Successfully destroyed eight uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) in Iranian-backed Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and over the Red Sea.”
Working with UK forces, the U.S. Central Command confirmed they “conducted strikes against 13 Houthi targets in Iranian-backed Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in self-defense.”
According to the source, the attacks were “necessary” to protect forces and ensure freedom of navigation as “the UAVs and sites presented a threat to U.S. and coalition forces and merchant vessels in the region.”
Similar to the U.S., British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the “strikes were taken in self-defense in the face of an ongoing threat that the Houthis pose.” The UK’s Ministry of Defense said that the buildings they hit had been “identified as housing drone ground control facilities.”
Houthis said that the hit on Thursday struck a radio station’s building and civilian homes that are based in the Red Sea port city.
“We confirm this brutal aggression against Yemen as punishment for its position in support of Gaza, in support of Israel to continue its crimes of genocide against the wounded, besieged and steadfast Gaza Strip,” a Houthi spokesperson, Mohammed Abdulsalam, wrote on X.
Tensions rose between the Yemeni group and the two Western nations after October 7, when the Houthis said they would seek to support Hamas and launched missile and drone attacks against Israel.
In November, one month into Israel’s full-scale bombardment of Palestine, the Houthis announced they would target Israeli shipping in the Red Sea.
According to the UK government, Houthi’s response has been largely successful in disrupting shipments, container shipment capacity in the Red Sea was 80% lower than expected in January.
Witnessing the disruption in Red Sea shipments, the UK and U.S. have been retaliating since January against Houthis and other Iranian-aligned groups.