2024-01-12 00:58:50
– US and UK carry out strikes on Houthis
The United States and Britain have carried out strikes once morest targets linked to Yemen’s Houthi rebels. These are the first responses targeting the Houthis, Iran’s allies, since the group began launching attacks on commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
Published today at 01:58 Updated 25 minutes ago
The ship USS Laboon in transit to the Suez Canal.
AFP
The United States and the United Kingdom have “successfully” carried out strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday, following weeks of attacks by these rebels on ships in the Red Sea.
The American-British operation was carried out “in direct response to the unprecedented Houthi attacks on international ships in the Red Sea,” Joe Biden said in a statement, referring to a “defensive” action. The US president further warned that he “would not hesitate” to “order further measures” if necessary to protect America and international trade.
“Necessary” and “proportionate” strikes
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke of “necessary” and “proportionate” strikes. The strikes involved fighter jets and Tomahawk missiles, several American media reported. They benefited from “support” from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands, the White House said.
“These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our troops or allow hostile actors to endanger freedom of navigation across one of the most important trade routes. important in the world,” said the American president. White House spokesman John Kirby said earlier that the United States would do what is necessary “to counter and disarm these threats that the Houthis pose to maritime traffic in the Red Sea.”
Coalition internationale
The leader of Yemen’s rebels, Abdel Malek al-Houthi, threatened Thursday to respond to any American attack in the Red Sea with even “more important” operations than the particularly heavy one dating from Tuesday. 18 drones and three missiles were then shot down by three American destroyers, a British ship HMS Diamond and by combat planes deployed from the American aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The Houthis, close to Iran and who control a large part of Yemen, have increased attacks recently, by missiles and drones in the Red Sea, near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait separating the Arabian Peninsula from Africa. They say they are targeting commercial ships they suspect of being linked to Israel, claiming to act in solidarity with the Gaza Strip, the scene of a devastating war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
In response, the United States had already deployed warships and set up an international coalition in December to protect maritime traffic in this area where 12% of world trade passes. Some shipowners are now bypassing the area, which has increased transport costs between Europe and Asia.
Another 2,500 American soldiers in Iraq
The Red Sea is not, far from it, the only hot spot in the region for the United States, which has firmly supported Israel since the bloody Hamas attack on October 7. Since October, American forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked 130 times, according to the Pentagon. The United States has around 2,500 troops in Iraq, and 900 in Syria, deployed with the aim of preventing a reconstitution of the jihadist group Islamic State.
Last week, the leader of a pro-Iranian faction was killed in Baghdad by an American strike, which aroused the indignation of the Iraqi government, itself supported by parties close to Iran. The Iraqi Prime Minister subsequently expressed his “firm” determination to put an end to the presence in Iraq of the international anti-jihadist coalition.
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