2024-01-18 22:10:08
– Washington strikes the Houthis once more and plans to continue
The US military carried out strikes once more on Thursday in Yemen on sites belonging to the Houthis and does not intend to stop.
Published today at 11:10 p.m.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby on December 19 at the White House.
Getty Images via AFP
The United States struck Houthi sites in Yemen for the fifth time on Thursday, in response to attacks by the Iran-backed group on merchant ships in the Red Sea, a crucial area for international trade.
This is the second salvo of American bombings in less than 24 hours on Houthi missiles, placed on Wednesday by Washington on one of its lists of “terrorist organizations”.
US President Joe Biden said such strikes would continue as long as the Houthis disrupt international maritime trade off Yemen.
“We are not looking for conflict”
The United States struck on the ground Thursday morning “missiles (…) which we believe were ready to be launched imminently into the Red Sea,” explained National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, following bombings already carried out during the night from Wednesday to Thursday on 14 Houthi missiles.
According to the American Joint Command in the Middle East (Centcom), the United States destroyed “two anti-ship missiles facing the Red Sea” on Thursday around 1:40 p.m. (Swiss time).
Deputy spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense, Sabrina Singh, said that these bombings, which began at the end of last week and sometimes carried out with Great Britain, might have “destroyed a significant part of the capabilities” of the Houthis. “We are not seeking conflict with the Houthis, nor conflict in the region,” assured John Kirby.
Fears of conflagration
In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Minister called on the United States to stop its “aggression” once morest Yemen. “The more the Americans and the British bomb, the less the Houthis will want to talk,” Sergei Lavrov said.
Early Thursday, the Houthis promised to continue their attacks on ships in the Red Sea, “regardless of US-British aggression to try to prevent (them)”.
This Iran-backed group has attacked dozens of merchant ships it considers “linked to Israel” in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
These attacks, which they say are being carried out out of solidarity with the Palestinian territory, have forced many shipowners to suspend the passage of their fleets through the Red Sea. To deal with this, the United States set up a coalition at the start of the year to patrol off the coast of Yemen and protect maritime traffic.
Without France
Not all the countries in this coalition are participating in the strikes but Denmark, home of the number two global shipping company Maersk, announced Thursday that it would join. France has decided not to participate “to avoid any escalation” in the region, according to its president Emmanuel Macron.
These ship attacks and the American strikes in response raise fears of a risk of conflagration in the Middle East, while the war in Gaza is already having repercussions in Lebanon and northern Israel, where clashes are almost complete. daily reports between pro-Iranian Hezbollah and the Israeli army.
The Houthis have occupied a large part of Yemen since 2014 and the capture of the capital Saana, from which they ousted the government in place, which took refuge in the southern part of the country. In 2015, a Saudi-led military coalition intervened to support the Yemeni army and government.
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