DUBAI, June 6. /TASS/. At least 55 people have been killed since January by the US and UK strikes on the facilities of the rebel Houthi movement Ansar Allah in Yemen, the movement’s leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said.

"Since the onset of aggression against our country on January 12, 2024, the US and UK armed forces have delivered 487 strikes, killing 55 people with 78 sustaining wounds," he said in a broadcast by Al Masirah TV channel.

After the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis warned that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory while barring ships associated with the Jewish state from passing through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until Tel Aviv ceased its military operation against Palestinian radical group Hamas in the embattled enclave. Since last November, the Houthis have attacked dozens of civilian vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

In response, the US and its allies launched Operation Prosperity Guardian aiming to ensure both the freedom of navigation and the safety of maritime traffic in the Red Sea. Subsequently, the armed forces of the United States and the United Kingdom began to deliver joint strikes on rebel-held positions in several Yemeni cities, using aircraft, warships and submarines, targeting Houthi missile sites, drones and radiolocation systems.