Yemen's Houthi rebels announced Sunday that they launched an attack consisting of 18 ballistic and cruise missiles along with drones targeting the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and its escort warships in the northern Red Sea. The attacks came just a day after US President Donald Trump ordered air strikes on the group's bastion in Yemen.
Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the attack was in response to more than 47 US airstrikes - ordered by US President Donald Trump - on rebel-held areas in Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and Saada province, which borders Saudi Arabia.
"The Yemeni armed forces will not hesitate to attack all American warships in the Red and Arabian seas in retaliation for the aggression against our country," Saree said.
Both the United States and the Houthis have warned of further escalation after U.S. airstrikes aimed at deterring rebels from attacking military and commercial vessels on one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea - sinking two vessels - and claimed their actions were in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza during Israel's war with Hamas, another Iran-backed group.
These attacks ceased when the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into force on 19 January, the day before Trump's inauguration.
Last week, however, the Houthis announced they would resume attacks on Israeli vessels after Israel imposed a blockade on the enclave, cutting off the flow of humanitarian aid.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told US media on Sunday: "We are not going to allow these people to control which ships can pass and which cannot. And so your question is, how long will it take? It's going to take until they no longer have the ability to do that."
He stressed that these strikes would be different from the one-off attacks by the Biden administration.
The Houthi-led health ministry said US airstrikes on Saturday killed at least 53 people, including five women and two children. They said more than 100 others were wounded in the attacks in Sanaa and Saada, with more than a dozen suffering critical injuries.
These strikes were among the most extensive against the Houthis since the Gaza war began in October 2023.
On Saturday, Trump vowed to use "overwhelming lethal force" until the Iran-backed group stops its attacks on the vital maritime corridor, and warned Tehran that he would hold it "fully accountable" for the actions of all its regional proxies, including the Houthis.
Iran, however, denied on Sunday that it had any involvement in the Houthi attacks. General Hossein Salamithe head of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, told state media that Tehran "plays no role in determining the national or operational policy" of the militant groups it is allied with throughout the region.
euronews/ gnews.cz - RoZ
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