WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US warplanes staged multiple strikes Saturday night on Iran-backed Houthi advanced weapons storage facilities in Yemen, the Pentagon said.
The facilities contained various weapons used to target military and civilian vessels navigating international waters throughout the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, according to information provided to Agence France-Presse (AFP) by the Pentagon.
The Houthi-run Al Masirah television network reported three American and British raids that targeted the capital Sanaa’s southern Al Sabeen district.
“Eyewitnesses said they heard intense flying, along with explosions in different parts of the capital Sanaa,” Al Masirah said.
The US and Britain have repeatedly struck Houthi targets in Yemen since January in response to attacks by the rebels on shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The rebels say the strikes, which have disrupted maritime traffic in a globally important waterway, target vessels linked to Israel and are intended to signal solidarity with Palestinians during the Gaza war.
The attacks have seriously disrupted the Red Sea route which carries 12 percent of global trade.
In more than 100 Houthi attacks over nearly a year, four sailors have been killed and two ships have sunk, while one vessel and its crew remain detained since being hijacked last November.
Saturday’s strikes come three days after the Houthi’s leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi criticized US president-elect Donald Trump for supporting Israel.
Houthi said that normalization deals between Arab countries and Israel brokered by Trump had failed to bring an end to the Middle East conflict and that he would fail again in his second term.
Saudis killed
Meanwhile, two Saudi military personnel have been killed in an attack in Yemen, Saudi state media said Saturday, reporting that the assailant was “affiliated with” Yemen’s defense ministry.
“An officer and a non-commissioned officer were martyred and an officer was injured as a result of a treacherous and cowardly attack” on Friday inside a military camp in the city of Seiyun, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said, citing defense ministry spokesperson Brigadier General Turki al-Maliki.
Saudi Arabia mobilized an international coalition to intervene in Yemen to support the internationally recognized government in 2015, after Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa the previous year.
Seiyun is located in the governorate of Hadhramout, which falls under the control of the internationally recognized government.
The coalition forces stationed in the camp where the attack took place were helping train local forces to combat terrorism and smuggling, SPA said.
The attack took place during an athletics training, it said, without elaborating on how it was carried out or providing details of the assailant’s identity or position.
A Yemeni officer told AFP that the incident began with a verbal altercation between the Yemeni perpetrator and the Saudis, which led to an exchange of gunfire.
SPA said that the perpetrator “does not represent the honorable members of the Yemeni Ministry of Defense who appreciate the positive and important role played by the coalition forces” to back the government.
The bodies of the dead and the wounded officer have been transported to Saudi Arabia, SPA said.
“The joint forces will work in coordination with the Yemeni Ministry of Defense to follow up on the investigation procedures to find out the reasons and motives and arrest the perpetrator and bring him to justice,” the report said.
The war in Yemen has killed hundreds of thousands either in fighting or from indirect causes such as a lack of food, the United Nations (UN) says.
Hostilities fell off considerably in April 2022, when a six-month, UN-brokered truce came into effect, and they have remained at a low level since.