The spokesperson of Yemen’s Houthi rebel group Mohammed Abdulsalam said that the country would continue to defend itself after several U.S. strikes targeted facilities in the capital Sanaa.
The U.S. military said that it carried out strikes against Houthi targets in Sanaa and coastal locations in Yemen on Monday and Tuesday.
“On December 30 and 31, U.S. Navy ships and aircraft targeted a Houthi command and control facility and advanced conventional weapon (ACW) production and storage facilities that included missiles and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV),” the U.S. military’s Central Command said in a post on social media.
The Iran-backed militant group in Yemen has been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea for more than a year to try to enforce a naval blockade on Israel, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s year-long war in Gaza.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations issued what he called a final warning to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants to halt missile attacks on Israel, saying they risked the same “miserable fate” as Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad if they persisted.
The ambassador, Danny Danon, also warned Tehran that Israel has the ability to strike any target in the Middle East, including Iran. He added that Israel would not tolerate attacks by Iranian proxies.
The Houthis repeatedly have fired drones and missiles towards Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli fire in Gaza.
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Houthis that Israel was “just getting started” following Israeli strikes on multiple Houthi-linked targets in Yemen, including Sanaa airport, ports on the country’s west coast and two power plants.
Israel’s elimination of the top leaders of the Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah and the destruction of their military structure along with Assad’s collapse represents a succession of monumental wins for Netanyahu.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
