SANAA, Yemen
The US and the UK have carried out 300 airstrikes in Yemen since last month, according to the Houthi group on Monday.
“The US is attacking Yemen and it will not escape punishment,” Hussein al-Ezzi, a Houthi official in their Foreign Ministry, told a press conference cited by the Houthi-run Al-Masirah Television.
“We can never be silent about the aggression against our country, and it will not affect our position towards Gaza and Palestine,” he added.
The Houthi official said targeting American and British ships in the Red Sea “is a subsequent result of the aggression against Yemen.”
Yemen’s Houthis have been targeting commercial vessels in the Red Sea, particularly those bound for Israel, since November. They say their attacks aim to put pressure on Israel to halt its deadly onslaught on the Gaza Strip, prompting the US and UK to launch retaliatory airstrikes on targets inside Yemen beginning in January.
The Red Sea is one of the world’s most frequently used sea routes for oil and fuel shipments. It allows ships to travel between Europe and Asia to avoid the much longer and costlier naval route around the southern tip of Africa by transiting through Egypt’s Suez Canal instead.
