Yemen strikes: US military conducts fresh strikes against Houthi targets – live

Huge explosions have been seen in Yemeni cities together with Sana’a and Hodeidah within the early hours of 12 January, with the US military saying 60 strikes have been launched against 16 websites linked to the Houthis’ military operations. On Wednesday, the US military carried out extra strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, the US Central Command mentioned.

The military mentioned that it “conducted strikes on 14 Iran-backed Houthi missiles that were loaded to be fired in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen”.

Below, The Independent seems at how the assaults unfolded and what weapons have been used within the strikes.

On January 1, 2024, Italy assumed the Presidency of the G7 and Tajani answered questions concerning the potential deployment of an EU naval mission to guard ships from assaults by Yemen’s Houthi militia within the Red Sea.

Would the US and the UK be ready to place boots on the bottom in Yemen (as Boris Johnson proposed)? Will a protracted air marketing campaign be sufficient to paralyse the Iran-backed Houthis? There are many tough questions left to reply over the Middle East’s newest hotspot, warns Kim Sengupta:

Officials mentioned they’d design the monetary penalties to reduce hurt to Yemen’s 32 million folks, who’re among the many world’s poorest and hungriest after years of struggle between the Iran-backed Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition.

But assist officers expressed concern. The determination would solely add “another level of uncertainty and threat for Yemenis still caught in one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises,” Oxfam America affiliate director Scott Paul mentioned.

The US military fired one other wave of ship- and submarine-launch missile strikes against Houthi-controlled websites Wednesday, US officers mentioned, marking the fourth time in days it has instantly focused the group in Yemen as violence that ignited within the wake of the Israel-Hamas struggle continues to spill over within the Middle East.

The Islamist group claims it started placing a slender strip of sea between Yemen and east Africa, which is a key worldwide commerce route, in a bid to finish Israel’s air and floor offensive against Hamas.

In retaliation, Britain and the US launched air strikes throughout Yemen against Houthi forces. President Joe Biden referred to as the strikes a “direct response” to an onslaught of assaults on Red Sea ships which “jeopardised trade, and threatened freedom of navigation”.

Nearly three years after eradicating them from US authorities rolls of worldwide terrorist teams, the Biden administration is re-including the Yemen-based Houthis to an inventory of specifically designated world terrorists following a collection of assaults by the group on US forces and worldwide transport within the Red Sea.

A senior Biden administration official informed reporters late Tuesday that the Houthi militia is not going to be re-added to the ranks of teams designated by the State Department as Foreign Terrorist Organisations, however will as a substitute obtain the lesser designation, which robotically imposes a variety of US sanctions on the group.

By distinction, a designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation makes it against the law for anybody to offer “material support” to the group, a class broad sufficient to doubtlessly embody humanitarian assist meant for the folks of Yemen.

A Houthi pirate dubbed “Timhouthi Chalamet” on X, previously generally known as Twitter, has shot again at media protection praising his seems saying: “This is not the time to talk about beauty.”

Rashid al-Haddad went viral for social media posts he recorded of himself on board a vessel because it circled a ship within the Red Sea.

Responding to a Newsweek article with the headline: “’Hot’ Houthi pirate becomes online sensation: ‘God you’re beautiful’” he replied:

“I did not talk about beauty or anything else, but our issue is Palestine, and this is not the time to talk about beauty. I hope that my message will reach you, a free Palestine, and we will ignite it against the Israeli aggression that violates human rights.”

The US military carried out extra strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on Wednesday, the US Central Command mentioned.

The military mentioned that it “conducted strikes on 14 Iran-backed Houthi missiles that were loaded to be fired in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen”.

It added: “These missiles on launch rails presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region and could have been fired at any time prompting US forces to exercise their inherent right and obligation to defend themselves.”

It mentioned the strikes and “other actions we have taken” would “degrade the Houthi’s capabilities to continue their reckless attacks on international and commercial shipping in the Red Sea, the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden”.

Huge explosions have been seen in Yemeni cities together with Sana’a and Hodeidah within the early hours of 12 January, with the US military saying 60 strikes have been launched against 16 websites linked to the Houthis’ military operations.

Below, The Independent seems at how the assaults unfolded and what weapons have been used within the strikes.