The US and UK began carrying out airstrikes on Houthi militias in Yemen in the early hours of Friday in response to the group targeting shipping routes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Washington and London launched their attacks without authorization from the UN Security Council. US President Joe Biden is also facing accusations from American lawmakers that he violated the Constitution as he didn’t ask for permission from Congress for the military operation.
The Houthis, who have pledged to support Gaza amid fighting between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, have launched multiple drones and missiles targeting merchant vessels, as well as warships patrolling the vital waterway since mid-October.
The Houthis are a Shia Islamist militia that rose to power following a wave of protests known as the Arab Spring, which swept the Middle East in the early 2010s.
One of the poorest countries in the region, Yemen has been plagued by an intermittent civil war for nearly a decade. It was further devastated by a Saudi-led intervention, which began in 2015 with the aim of expelling the Houthis.
13 January 2024
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US President Joe Biden has defended his decision to strike the Houthis, labeling them “a terrorist group.”
“We will make sure we respond to the Houthis if they continue this outrageous behavior along with our allies,” the president told reporters during a trip to Pennsylvania on Friday. His statement came after some members of Congress accused Biden of not seeking the chamber’s approval for the military action.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby earlier told reporters that the White House is “not interested in a war with Yemen.”
12 January 2024
A tanker reportedly carrying Russian oil was “mistakenly” attacked by the Houthis off the coast of Yemen on Friday, the British naval security company Ambrey has said. The vessel, which was not named, was about 90 nautical miles southeast of Aden when a missile landed about 400 meters away. The ship’s master also spotted three “skiffs” trailing the vessel. According to Ambrey, a public maritime database listed the ship as UK-affiliated, but that information is five months out of date and the tanker is actually registered in Panama.
Former US President Donald Trump has weighed in on the US-UK airstrikes on Houthi militias in Yemen, slamming Joe Biden on his Truth Social platform as “the worst president in the history of the United States.”
“Now we have wars in Ukraine, Israel, and Yemen, but no ‘war’ on our Southern Border,” Trump said. The former president has previously advocated treating surging immigration at the US border as a “war.”
He also hit out at US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for “running the war from his laptop in a hospital room,” referring to news this week that Austin had kept his cancer diagnosis from the White House and later ordered dozens of strikes in Yemen from his hospital bed, according to CNN.
Mass protests have broken out in Yemen. Tens of thousands have taken to the streets of the capital Sanaa and several other cities across the country to express their anger after the American and British strikes on their country.
“Your strikes on Yemen are terrorism,” Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, a member of the Houthi Supreme Political Council said, addressing the crowd. “The United States is the Devil.”
The US-UK strikes had “good effects,” according to Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder, adding that the two nations’ militaries will monitor the situation.
According to the official, Washington currently has no plans to send additional troops to the region.
“Our initial assessment is that we had good effects,” Ryder told CNN. “We will continue to monitor and as the president and [Defense] Secretary Austin have said, we will continue to take necessary action.”
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered and oversaw the overnight strikes on dozens of Houthi-related targets in Yemen from a hospital bed “with a full suite of secure communications,” CNN has reported, citing an anonymous senior Pentagon official. The American defense chief was hospitalized on January 1 for complications after prostate cancer surgery, keeping President Joe Biden and Congress in the dark about his condition for days.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the US and UK of trying to turn the Red Sea into a “sea of blood” with their disproportionate strikes on Yemen. The Houthi fighters are mounting a “successful defense, response” against those attacks, Erdogan also said, newspaper Daily Sabah reported.
The Houthis earlier announced that five people were killed and six others wounded in an aerial assault by the two Western nations. Despite the losses, they vowed to continue targeting commercial vessels off Yemen’s coast, which they’ve been doing for more than two months now, in response to the Israeli military operation in Gaza.
The German Foreign Ministry has claimed that the airstrikes on Yemen by the US and UK were “consistent with the UN Charter” and aimed at preventing further attacks by the Houthis against Israeli-bound ships.
“Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea, but let our message be clear: we will not hesitate to defend lives and protect the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways in the face of continued threats,” the ministry said in a statement.
Russia condemns the “illegitimate” airstrikes on Yemen by the US and UK, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has said. He stressed that the UN Security Council Resolution, which had been adopted on Thursday and called on the Houthis to stop targeting Israeli-linked vessels in the Red Sea, didn’t give Washington and London the right to carry out the attack. Russia abstained during the vote on the document, Peskov reminded reporters.
The US and UK “tried to bring their actions under an international legal framework, but they failed. From the point of view of the international law, these strikes are illegitimate,” the spokesman stressed.
As for the Houthi attack on commercial vessels, Moscow “repeatedly called on them to abandon this practice and consider[s] it unlawful,” Peskov said.
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Paris believes the Houthis “bear the extremely serious responsibility” for the escalation in the Red Sea, the French Foreign Ministry said, following the US and UK airstrikes on Yemen.
“France renews its condemnation of the attacks carried out by the Houthis in the Red Sea against commercial vessels which violate navigation rights and freedoms and demands that the Houthis put an end to them immediately,” the ministry said in a statement.
The UK isn’t planning more strikes against Houthi fighters in Yemen at the moment, British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey has told the BBC. When asked about possible further sorties, Heappey replied that “there are none immediately planned, and that’s an important point.”
The American and British air attacks on Yemen overnight were “a limited, proportionate, necessary response” to actions by the Houthis, who targeted Israeli-bound vessels in the Red Sea, the minister said.
Following the American strikes on Yemen, which were carried out without congressional approval, social media users have been sharing a previous post from US President Joe Biden on X (formerly Twitter), in which he attacked Donald Trump for a similar move.
The message in question was published on January 6, 2020, a few days after top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
“Trump does not have the authority to take us into war with Iran without Congressional approval. A president should never take this nation to war without the informed consent of the American people,” Biden insisted at the time.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers have criticized the attacks against the Houthis in Yemen, arguing that the president violated the US Constitution by ordering them unilaterally.
Five people have been killed and six others wounded as the US and UK targeted five regions of Yemen with 73 strikes overnight, Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree has said in a video-address.
“The American and British enemy bears full responsibility for its criminal aggression against our Yemeni people, and it will not go unanswered and unpunished,” he insisted.
Saree also warned that “the Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target sources of threat and all hostile targets on land and at sea in defense of Yemen, its sovereignty and independence.”
There has been a mixed reaction from lawmakers in Washington following a series of retaliatory strikes by the US and UK on Houthi targets in Yemen, with some questioning whether President Joe Biden had the authority to approve the military action. However, many backed the use of force, saying it was the responsibility of the administration to unblock shipping routes and protect US troops in the region.
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Beijing is “concerned about the escalation of tensions in the Red Sea,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning has said, following the US and UK airstrikes in Yemen. “We urge the relevant parties to keep calm and exercise restraint, to prevent the conflict from expanding,” Mao stressed.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has called the US and UK airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen “another example of the distortion of UN Security Council resolutions” by the West. The Americans and the British have shown a “complete disregard for international law in the name of escalating the situation in the region for their own destructive purposes,” Zakharova insisted.
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An advisor to Iraq’s Prime Minister Fadi al-Shammari has slammed the US and UK strikes on Yemen as “another act of stupidity” by the West. With their actions, Washington and London are “expanding the circle of the conflict [in Gaza] and increasing tensions in the region, while calling on others to exercise restraint, reduce areas of tension and not escalate,” al-Shammari wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has issued a statement condemning the US and UK strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. “The American aggression confirms once again that the US is a full partner in the tragedies and massacres committed by the Zionist enemy in Gaza and the region,” the statement read.
Like the Houthis, Hezbollah has shown full support for the Palestinians amid the Israeli military operation in Gaza, being engaged in almost daily exchanges of fire with the IDF on the border between Lebanon and Israel since October 7.
Australia’s support for US and UK airstrikes in Yemen “came in the form of personnel in the operational headquarters,” Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said during a press conference.
The attacks were aimed at maintaining freedom of navigation and global trade, which are “completely central to Australia’s national interest,” Marles insisted. However, he added that the decision to back Washington and London “was not taken lightly” by Canberra.
“Australia will continue to support any actions which assert the global rules-based order,” the minister stressed.
The Houthis have insisted that airstrikes by the US and UK will not make them stop their attacks on vessels off Yemen’s coast. “The targeting was and will continue to affect Israeli ships or those heading to the ports of occupied Palestine,” Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam wrote on Twitter.
Speaking about the actions by Washington and London, Abdulsalam stressed that “there is absolutely no justification for this aggression against Yemen, as there was no threat to international navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas.”
US Central Command has said that “over 60 targets at 16 Iranian-backed Houthi militant locations” were struck in Yemen. The facilities included “command and control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities, and air defense radar systems,” according to CENTCOM.
Tehran “strongly” condemns the strikes by the US and UK on targets inside Yemen, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani has said. “We consider it a clear violation of Yemen’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a breach of international laws, regulations, and rights,” Kanaani stressed, as cited by the Nournews outlet.
Anti-war protesters gathered at Times Square in New York and outside the White House in Washington, DC, chanting “Let Yemen live” and “Hands off Yemen.” They also expressed solidarity with Palestine.
The US Central Command posted a video of its jets taking off from an aircraft carrier in the middle of the night. CENTCOM Commander, General Michael Kurilla, said that the Houthis “will be held accountable” for their “illegal and dangerous actions.”
Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Bahrain, and South Korea voiced their support for the US-British bombardment.
“Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea, but let our message be clear: we will not hesitate to defend lives and protect the free flow of commerce,” they countries said in a joint statement released by the White House.
American and British aircraft targeted Al-Dailami Air Base, north of Sanaa, local Al-Masirah TV station said.
Lebanese news channel Al Mayadden cited its reporter on the ground as saying that the Hodeidah Airport was also targeted.
Fadel Abu Taleb, a senior Houthi official, wrote on X that the bombardment “will not achieve any results and will not be able to discourage the Yemeni people from continuing their support for the Palestinians.”
Another senior Houthi official, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, described the coalition’s attack as “the greatest folly in their history,” according to Al Jazeera.
Riyadh has called for “restraint” and urged to “avoid escalation.”
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is following with great concern the military operations taking place in the Red Sea and the raids on a number of sites in the Republic of Yemen,” the kingdom’s Foreign Ministry said in statement, as quoted by Al Jazeera.
The strikes targeted “sites associated with the Houthis’ unmanned aerial vehicle, ballistic and cruise missile, and coastal radar and air surveillance capabilities,” US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said. He added that the US reserved the right to “take follow-on actions” to protect its forces.
UK Secretary of Defense Grant Shapps announced that four Eurofighter Typhoon jets “conducted precision strikes on two Houthi military sites.”
Russia has requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday to discuss the ongoing escalation in Yemen.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak released a statement in the early hours of Friday, saying that the Royal Air Force “has carried out targeted strikes against military facilities used by Houthi rebels in Yemen.”
The PM accused the Houthis of “destabilizing” commercial shipping in the Red Sea. “Their reckless actions are risking lives at sea and exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Yemen,” Sunak said.
“This cannot stand,” he added, describing the strikes as “limited, necessary and proportionate action in self-defense.”
Yemeni news agency SABA reported that the strikes occurred in the country’s capital Sanaa, as well as the provinces of Saada, Hodeidah, Taiz and Dhamar.
Unverified videos posted to social media show powerful explosions on the ground.
Houthi spokesman Abdulsalam Jahaf claimed that “a number of American and British warships have been hit” during “a major battle in the Red Sea.”
“Whoever is involved, will pay the price,” he wrote on X. “We will not stop our attack until you leave the area.”
US President Joe Biden said that the Western coalition has “successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways.”
“Today’s defensive action follows this extensive diplomatic campaign and Houthi rebels’ escalating attacks against commercial vessels,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House. He added that the military action sends “a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation” in the region.
Several Western outlets quoted unnamed American and British officials as confirming the strikes. The White House and Downing Street are yet to make official statements on the matter.
The sites in Yemen were targeted by fighter jets and hit with Tomahawk cruise missiles, CNN reported.
Houthi spokesman Abdulsalam Jahaf earlier wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that blasts occurred in Sanaa, Hodeidah and other cities.