US, UK deliver another series of strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen — TV
Strikes were delivered on the Dhamar, Taiz, Hodeidah, and Al-Bayda governorates
MOSCOW, January 18. /TASS/. The United States and the United Kingdom have delivered another series of strikes on Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, the Al Masirah television channel belonging to the Houthi reported.
According to the TV channel, strikes were delivered on the Dhamar, Taiz, Hodeidah, and Al-Bayda governorates. One strike was dealt of a Houthi facility in the settlement of al-Salif in the Hodeidah governorate on the Red Sea coast.
Al Masirah reported earlier on Thursday that the US and the UK had attacked the Houthi-controlled governorates of Dhamar, Sa’da, Taiz, Hodeidah, and Al-Bayda.
US Defense Department’s Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that it had hit 14 Houthi missile launching sites, which posed a direct threat to US commercial vessels and warships.
On January 17, the Houthi attacked the US Marshall Islands-flagged Genco Picardy ship in the Gulf of Aden. According to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), the drone attack on a vessel some 60 nautical miles off the Yemeni port of Aden had been followed by a fire. According to CENTCOM, the ship sustained damage but its crew was not hurt.
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 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.