'Will Only Increase Determination': Houthis After US, UK Launch Fresh Strikes In Yemen

The US and UK have launched fresh strikes in Yemen targeting an underground storage and missile facilities of the Houthi group in Yemen.

Cargo ships are seen at Israel's Haifa commercial shipping port in the Mediterranean Sea on December 13, 2023. In solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, Yemen's Houthis warned that they will target cargo vessels sailing through the Red Sea if they are heading for Israeli ports, regardless of their nationality.

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Senior Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti has said the determination of the militant group will only increase after the UK and the US carried out fresh strikes in Yemen targeting an underground storage site and missile and surveillance capabilities used by the Iran-backed group in attacks on the Red Sea shipping, the Pentagon said, Reuters reported.

Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti took to X and said, "The American-British aggression will only increase the Yemeni people’s determination to carry out their moral and humanitarian responsibilities towards the oppressed in Gaza,” he said. “The war today is between Yemen, which is struggling to stop the crimes of genocide, and the American-British coalition to support and protect its perpetrators.”

Posting an undated video which seemed to show children dying, he said, “Thus, every party or individual in this world is faced with two choices that have no thirds: either to preserve its humanity and stand with Yemen or to lose it and stand with the American-British alliance. Who do you stand with as you watch these crimes?”

The fresh airstrikes come after eight rounds earlier over the past month which have failed to stop the rebel group's attacks against Red Sea shipping. The Houthis controlling large parts of Yemen have said their attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, who are locked in a war-torn state amid the Israel-Hamas war.

The attacks by the Houthis have triggered fears of global inflation by disrupting world shipping. The Houthi attacks have also raised concerns about stability in the Middle East.

The US and the UK forces struck at eight locations in Yemen, with help from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands, a joint statement signed by the six countries said. A senior US military official told Reuters roughly 25 to 30 munitions were fired, including from warplanes launched from a US aircraft carrier. US officials, without divulging specifics, have assured the strikes have degraded the Houthi's capability to launch complex attacks. "We are having the intended effect," the US military official told Pentagon reporters, Reuters said.

British Defence Minister Grant Shapps said the strikes were carried out in self-defence. He said, "This action will deal another blow to their limited stockpiles and ability to threaten global trade."