2024-01-16 19:17:15
The US military carried out strikes in Yemen on Tuesday targeting four Houthi rebel missiles that posed an “imminent threat” to merchant and military ships, a US official said.
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This is the third operation carried out in less than a week by the United States against the Houthis, who are targeting ships off the coast of the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, in solidarity, they say, with the Palestinians in Gaza, a territory shelled and besieged by Israel, supported by Washington.
“The United States conducted self-defense strikes against four Houthi ballistic missiles that posed an imminent threat to U.S. merchant ships and naval vessels,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
These “four Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles” were “ready to be launched from areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthis,” the American Military Command in the Middle East (Centcom) said on X.
The rebels again targeted a merchant ship on Tuesday, according to Centcom.
Last week, US-British strikes targeted nearly 30 sites in Yemen with more than 150 munitions. US forces also attacked radar and drone and missile infrastructure, in an operation billed as a continuation of previous strikes.
Last month, the United States established a multinational naval force to protect shipping in the Red Sea, a critical transit route that accounts for up to 12% of global trade.
American forces have intercepted missiles and drones fired from Yemen, where rebels, at war against the government, control a large part of the territory.
American interests are at the same time the target of attacks in Iraq and Syria carried out, according to Washington, by armed groups linked to Iran.
The United States says it wants to avoid a regional conflagration linked to the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, where more than 24,000 people have been killed by Israeli bombings and military operations, the vast majority of them women, children and adolescents, i.e. 1 % of the population, according to the authorities of the Palestinian territory.
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