NEW YORK, January 18. /TASS/. The United States has delivered another strike on Houthi targets in Yemen, the ABC television channel reported on Wednesday, citing officials.
The strike came as a response to the Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
The NBC television channel said, citing two US Department of Defense officials, that the US had fired Tomahawk missiles at Houthi missile launching sites.
The US Defense Department’s Central Command’s (CENTCOM) said on January 17 that the Yemeni rebel movement Ansar Allah had delivered a missile strike on the US Genco Picardy ship in the Gulf of Aden.
Following 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. According to the US Defense Department’s Central Command’s (CENTCOM) estimates, the Yemeni rebel group has attacked more than 20 vessels and civilian ships in the Red Sea since mid-November.
On the night of January 12, the United States and the United Kingdom delivered air strikes on rebel-held positions in several Yemeni cities, using aircraft, warships and submarines. US President Joe Biden said the military action was ordered in response to "unprecedented Houthi attacks" on shipping in the Red Sea and that the strikes were delivered in self-defense.