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Tag: Yemen

  • US conducts new ‘self-defense’ strike on Yemen’s Houthis following attacks by Iran-backed militants

    US conducts new ‘self-defense’ strike on Yemen’s Houthis following attacks by Iran-backed militants

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    WASHINGTON — The United States and Britain struck 36 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in a second wave of assaults meant to further disable Iran-backed groups that have relentlessly attacked American and international interests in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. But Washington once more did not directly target Iran as it tries to find a balance between a forceful response and intensifying the conflict.

    U.S. Central Command said its forces conducted an additional strike on Sunday “in self-defense against a Houthi anti-ship cruise missile prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea,” according to a post on X, formerly Twitter.

    “U.S. forces identified the cruise missile in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined it presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region. This action will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy vessels and merchant vessels,” the post added.

    The strikes on Saturday against the Houthis were launched by U.S. warships and American and British fighter jets. The strikes followed an air assault in Iraq and Syria on Friday that targeted other Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan last weekend.

    The Houthi targets on Saturday were in 13 different locations and were struck by U.S. F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, by British Typhoon FGR4 fighter aircraft and by the Navy destroyers USS Gravely and the USS Carney firing Tomahawk missiles from the Red Sea, according to U.S. officials and the U.K. Defense Ministry. The U.S. officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the military operation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

    The U.S. warned its response after the soldiers’ deaths at the Tower 22 base in Jordan last Sunday would not be limited to one night, one target or one group. While there has been no suggestion the Houthis were directly responsible, they have been one of the prime U.S. adversaries since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said that more than 26,000 people have been killed and more than 64,400 wounded in the Israeli military operation since the war began.

    The Houthis have been conducting almost daily missile or drone attacks against commercial and military ships transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and they have made clear that they have no intention of scaling back their campaign despite pressure from the American and British campaign.

    Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi official, said “military operations against Israel will continue until the crimes of genocide in Gaza are stopped and the siege on its residents is lifted, no matter the sacrifices it costs us.” He wrote online that the “American-British aggression against Yemen will not go unanswered, and we will meet escalation with escalation.”

    The Biden administration has indicated that this is likely not the last of its strikes. The U.S. has blamed the Jordan attack on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias. Iran has tried to distance itself from the drone strike, saying the militias act independently of its direction.

    Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the military action, with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, “sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks on international shipping and naval vessels.”

    He added: “We will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways.”

    The Defense Department said the strikes targeted sites associated with the Houthis’ deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems, radars and helicopters. The British military said it struck a ground control station west of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, that has been used to control Houthi drones that have launched against vessels in the Red Sea.

    President Joe Biden was briefed on the strikes before he left Delaware on Saturday for a West Coast campaign trip, according to an administration official.

    The latest strikes marked the third time the U.S. and Britain had conducted a large joint operation to strike Houthi weapon launchers, radar sites and drones. The strikes in Yemen are meant to underscore the broader message to Iran that Washington holds Tehran responsible for arming, funding and training the array of militias – from Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen – who are behind attacks across the Mideast against U.S. and international interests.

    Video shared online by people in Sanaa included the sound of explosions and at least one blast was seen lighting up the night sky. Residents described the blasts as happening around buildings associated with the Yemeni presidential compound. The Houthi-controlled state-run news agency, SABA, reported strikes in al-Bayda, Dhamar, Hajjah, Hodeida, Taiz and Sanaa provinces.

    Hours before the latest joint operation, the U.S. took another self-defense strike on a site in Yemen, destroying six anti-ship cruise missiles, as it has repeatedly when it has detected a missile or drone ready to launch. The day before the strikes the U.S. destroyer Laboon and F/A-18s from the Eisenhower shot down seven drones fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Red Sea and the destroyer Carney shot down a drone fired in the Gulf of Aden and U.S. forces took out four more drones that were prepared to launch.

    The Houthis’ attacks have led shipping companies to reroute their vessels from the Red Sea, sending them around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope – a much longer, costlier and less efficient passage. The threats also have led the U.S. and its allies to set up a joint mission where warships from participating nations provide a protective umbrella of air defense for ships as they travel the critical waterway that runs from the Suez Canal down to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

    During normal operations, about 400 commercial vessels transit the southern Red Sea at any given time.

    In the wake of the strikes Friday in Iraq and Syria, Hussein al-Mosawi, spokesperson for Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the main Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, said Washington “must understand that every action elicits a reaction.” But in an AP interview in Baghdad, he also struck a more conciliatory tone. “We do not wish to escalate or widen regional tensions,” he said.

    Iraqi officials have attempted to rein in the militias, while also condemning U.S. retaliatory strikes as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and calling for an exit of the 2,500 U.S. troops who are in the country as part of an international coalition to fight the Islamic State group. Last month, Iraqi and U.S. military officials launched formal talks to wind down the coalition’s presence, a process that will likely take years.

    Copyright © 2024 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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  • Iran says US-British strikes in Yemen are ‘fueling chaos and disorder’ in Mideast

    Iran says US-British strikes in Yemen are ‘fueling chaos and disorder’ in Mideast

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    Iran on Sunday denounced U.S. and British air strikes on Yemen as “fueling chaos and disorder” and risking an escalation of the war in the Middle East.

    Washington and London, with support from partner nations, on Saturday launched a fresh round of air and missile strikes on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen in retaliation for the group’s continued attacks on international shipping. A day earlier, U.S. long-range aircraft bombarded Iranian military and proxy targets in Iraq and Syria.

    Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanani, claimed that the strikes contradict U.S. and U.K. policy of wanting to avoid an escalation in the conflict.

    These attacks are “in clear contradiction with the repeated claims of Washington and London that they do not want the expansion of war and conflict in the region,” Kanani said, according to AFP. He added that further attacks on Houthi rebels in Yemen would constitute a “threat to international peace and security.”



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    Hans von der Burchard

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  • After new US strikes hitting Yemen, Iran issues a warning about suspected spy ships in the Mideast

    After new US strikes hitting Yemen, Iran issues a warning about suspected spy ships in the Mideast

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    JERUSALEM (AP) — Iran issued a warning Sunday to the U.S. over potentially targeting two cargo ships in the Mideast long suspected of serving as forwarding operating base for Iranian commandos, just after America and the United Kingdom launched a massive airstrike campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

    The statement from Iran on the Behshad and Saviz ships appeared to signal Tehran’s growing unease over the U.S. strikes in recent days in Iraq, Syria and Yemen targeting militias backed by the Islamic Republic.

    Those attacks, themselves a retaliatory campaign for the killing of three U.S. soldiers and wounding of dozens of others in Jordan, all stem back to Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which has escalated tensions across the wider Middle East and raised fears about a regional conflict breaking out.

    The Yemen strikes overnight Sunday struck across six provinces of Yemen held by the Houthi rebels, including in Sanaa, the capital. The Houthis gave no assessment of the damage but the U.S. described hitting underground missile arsenals, launch sites and helicopters used by the rebels.

    “These attacks will not discourage Yemeni forces and the nation from maintaining their support for Palestinians in the face of the Zionist occupation and crimes,” Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said. “The aggressors’ airstrikes will not go unanswered.”

    U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned the Houthis after the strikes that “they will continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks on international shipping and naval vessels.” That message was echoed by British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who said: “The Houthi attacks must stop.”

    The Behshad and Saviz are registered as commercial cargo ships with a Tehran-based company the U.S. Treasury has sanctioned as a front for the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. The Saviz, then later the Behshad, have loitered for years in the Red Sea off Yemen, suspected of serving as spy positions for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

    In 2017, Saudi Arabia described the Saviz as a maritime base and weapons transshipment point for the Guard, staffed by men in military fatigues. Footage aired by Saudi-owned television channels showed the vessel armed with what appeared to be a covered machine gun bolted to the ship’s deck.

    In the video statement Sunday by the Iran’s regular army, a narrator for the first time describes the vessels as “floating armories.” The narrator describes the Behshad as aiding an Iranian mission to “counteract piracy in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.” However, Iran is not publicly known to have taken part in any of the recent campaigns against rising Somali piracy in the region off the back of the Houthi attacks.

    Just before the new campaign of U.S. airstrikes began, the Behshad traveled south into the Gulf of Aden. It’s now docked in Djibouti in East Africa just off the coast from a Chinese military base in the country.

    The statement ends with a warning overlaid with a montage of footage of U.S. warships and an American flag.

    “Those engaging in terrorist activities against Behshad or similar vessels jeopardize international maritime routes, security and assume global responsibility for potential future international risks,”

    The U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the threat.

    The Saviz, which is now in the Indian Ocean near where the U.S. alleges Iranian drone attacks recently have targeted shipping, has come under attack before. In 2021, a likely limpet mine explosion blew a hole through the hull of the Saviz, forcing Iran to bring the ship home. That attack, suspected to have been carried out by Israel, is part of a wider shadow war between Tehran and Israel after the collapse of the Iran nuclear deal.

    ___

    Baldor and Copp reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Brian Melley in London contributed to this report.

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  • Yemen: US and EU ignored our warnings about Houthis to court Iran for nuclear deal

    Yemen: US and EU ignored our warnings about Houthis to court Iran for nuclear deal

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    “We have been saying this a long time,” he said on a visit to Brussels. “I have been here three times before and always we said if we didn’t do this … the Houthis will never stop. The Houthis have an ideology, have a project. Iran has a project in the region and unfortunately, the others do not respond.”

    He expressed frustration that the EU and U.S. spent years pouring their diplomatic energies into wooing Tehran for a nuclear deal, rather than exerting more pressure on the Islamic Republic to stop supporting their Houthi allies, fellow Shi’ite Muslims who were seeking to impose what he labeled a “theocratic, totalitarian” police state.  

    The idea behind the nuclear talks was that Tehran should limit its nuclear ambitions in return for sanctions relief, but an accord proved out of reach.  

    No one paid attention

    Bin Mubarak noted international momentum for action — which has included U.S. and British strikes on Houthi targets — did not finally come about “because of what [the Houthis] did to the Yemenis. They killed thousands of Yemenis. Not because of the atrocities they committed, raping women … jailing women … Just look at what Houthis did. No one is paying attention.”   

    He explained Western diplomacy toward Iran was supposed to have focused on three elements: the nuclear program, Tehran’s support for regional proxies, and its ballistic missile program. The fixation on the first, to the detriment of the other two, means the West is now facing an adversary in Yemen that has been very well armed by Iran, bin Mubarak complained.  

    “[Iran’s] Shahed drones, the first time we started hearing the European Union talking about it, they were being used in Ukraine. But before that, for years, we were saying Iran is supplying Houthis and drones are attacking Yemeni people. No one was believing [it],” he continued, adding that Houthi drone strikes stopped Yemeni oil exports in October 2022.    



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    Christian Oliver

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  • Iran’s allies are attacking the West. What happens next?

    Iran’s allies are attacking the West. What happens next?

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    Could the U.S. take a tougher line?

    While the scale and target of Biden’s promised response is not yet clear, any unilateral move is likely to draw blowback from key allies in the Middle East who worry about sparking a regional war.

    Saudi Arabia has pushed for restraint in dealings with Tehran and fears the economic cost of regional instability.

    Turkey, a key NATO ally, has denounced Israel’s campaign in Gaza, while President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused the U.K. and the U.S. of trying to turn the Red Sea into a “sea of blood.”

    “Turkey does not want to be drawn into this conflict because it shares a border with Iran,” said Selin Nasi, a visiting fellow at the European Institute of the London School of Economics. “If the U.S. as its main ally in NATO gets involved in this military conflict directly then Turkey has to choose a side, and that will mean it’s harder to maintain a balanced approach — like it has done with the war in Ukraine.”

    The challenge for Biden is how to retaliate without risking escalation by Iran and its partners in the region. Conversely, doing nothing — especially after having said he would avenge the deaths of the three U.S. soldiers — would leave him vulnerable to a charge of weakness from Trump.

    “Iran’s leadership probably calculates that the United States will be reticent to fulsomely respond in any manner that would risk escalation of tensions in the Middle East and spark the region-wide [conflict] the Biden administration has admirably tried to prevent the past three months,” said Jonathan Panikoff, a former U.S. deputy national intelligence officer.

    But the U.S. may have “to undertake a more fulsome response to restore deterrence,” he added.

    Jamie Dettmer, Jeremy Van der Haegen and Laura Kayali contributed reporting.



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    Gabriel Gavin

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  • Beijing increases military pressure on Taiwan ahead of US-China talks

    Beijing increases military pressure on Taiwan ahead of US-China talks

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    Taiwan’s military “monitored the situation and tasked appropriate forces to respond,” the country’s ministry of national defense said.

    Tensions between Beijing and Taipei have remained high ever since Lai Ching-te won Taiwan’s presidential election early this month with a political campaign focused on pushing back against China’s threats against the island.

    U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Thailand to discuss ongoing geopolitical insecurity, including attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Middle East.

    Sullivan pressed Wang to use China’s influence with Iran to ease tensions in the Mideast. The officials also agreed to work toward arranging a call between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

    “China has influence over Tehran; they have influence in Iran. And they have the ability to have conversations with Iranian leaders that — that we can’t,” John Kirby, White House National Security Council spokesman, told reporters earlier.



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    Mark Scott

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  • Houthi rebels fire missile at US warship, escalating Mideast crisis

    Houthi rebels fire missile at US warship, escalating Mideast crisis

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    Though unsuccessful, the attack marks an intensification in the battle between the Houthis, which control large parts of Yemen, and a U.S.-led naval operation aimed at protecting commercial shipping in one of the most important global trade routes.

    In recent weeks, Western navies have repeatedly responded to Houthi attacks against cargo ships traveling along the coast of Yemen that began soon after the October 7 attack by the Hamas militant group against Israel.

    The Yemen-based group said it was conducting its attacks in solidarity with the Palestinian group. In response, Western militaries are now increasingly targeting Houthi weapons sites in Yemen.

    On Friday, the Houthi rebels also struck an oil tanker with a missile, according to the ship’s operator Trafigura. The company said on Saturday that it was assessing the security risks of further Red Sea voyages after firefighters put out a blaze on the tanker, the Marlin Luanda.



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    Mark Scott

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  • Behind the Houthis’ missile, drone attacks on shipping in the Red Sea

    Behind the Houthis’ missile, drone attacks on shipping in the Red Sea

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    Behind the Houthis’ missile, drone attacks on shipping in the Red Sea – CBS News


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    The Houthis, an armed political and religious group in Yemen with close ties to Iran, have cast themselves on social media as champions of the besieged people of Gaza, and are deploying Iranian-supplied weapons to disrupt global commerce and take on the U.S. military. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin explains why Hamas’ incursion into Israel on October 7 has led the Houthis to widen the war over Gaza.

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  • Saudi says escalating tensions amid Houthi attacks and US strikes are dangerous

    Saudi says escalating tensions amid Houthi attacks and US strikes are dangerous

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    By Kanishka Singh

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said the kingdom was “very worried” that tensions in the Red Sea amid attacks by Yemen’s Houthis and U.S. strikes on Houthi targets could spiral out of control and escalate the conflict in the region.

    “I mean, of course, we are very worried. I mean, you know, we are in a very difficult and dangerous time in the region, and that’s why we are calling for de-escalation,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan told CNN ‘Fareed Zakaria GPS’ in an interview that will be aired on Sunday.

    Attacks by the Iran-aligned Houthi militia on ships in and around the Red Sea for the past several weeks have slowed trade between Asia and Europe and alarmed major powers in an escalation of the war in Gaza.

    The Saudi foreign minister said the kingdom believed in freedom of navigation and wanted tensions in the region to be de-escalated.

    “We of course, believe very much in the freedom of navigation. And that’s something that needs to be protected. But we also need to protect the security and stability of the region. So we are very focused on de-escalating the situation as much as possible,” he told CNN.

    The Houthis, who control most of Yemen, say their attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians under attack from Israel in Gaza.

    Since last week, the United States has been launching strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, and this week returned the militia to a list of “terrorist” groups. President Joe Biden said on Thursday that air strikes would continue even as he acknowledged they may not be halting the Houthi attacks.

    The confrontation risks an expansion of the conflict beyond Hamas-governed Gaza, where the local health ministry says over 24,000 people – or more than 1% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population – have been killed in Israel’s assault.

    Israel launched its offensive following Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group, which Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people.

    (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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  • 1/18: CBS Evening News

    1/18: CBS Evening News

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    1/18: CBS Evening News – CBS News


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    DOJ reports highlights numerous law enforcement failures in Uvalde shooting response; An exclusive look at the world’s largest cruise ship

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  • US strike 2 Houthi anti-ship missiles in WW3 flashpoint Red Sea

    US strike 2 Houthi anti-ship missiles in WW3 flashpoint Red Sea

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    AMERICA has destroyed two Houthi anti-ship missiles that were ready to launch yet another attack in the Red Sea.

    This marks the fifth strike by the US in under a week as the Yemeni rebel group continues attacking commercial ships in the region.

    2

    Genco Picardy came under attack Wednesday from a bomb-carrying drone launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Gulf of AdenCredit: AP
    The photographs provided by the Indian navy show the aftermath of the strike

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    The photographs provided by the Indian navy show the aftermath of the strikeCredit: AP

    A tweet from the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the Thursday strikes, which are “part of ongoing multi-national efforts to protect freedom of navigation and prevent attacks on maritime vessels in the Red Sea”.

    CENTCOM said the missiles were aimed into the southern Red Sea and were “prepared to launch” when its forces identified them. 

    It said they determined they were an “imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region”. 

    “US forces subsequently struck and destroyed the missiles in self-defence,” it added, saying the strikes took place at around 3.40pm local time.

    The attack was quickly followed by a Houthi response, Al Jazeera reported.

    A Yemeni military source told the news outlet: “Ansar Allah-Houthi forces targeted an American ship near the Yemeni coast of Mukalla.”

    It came just a day after the US launched its fourth rounds of strikes against the Iran-backed rebels.

    It comes after a shocking image revealed a charred hole on the side of the US-owned cargo ship after it suffered a drone attack by the Houthi rebels.

    The merchant vessel Genco Picardy was hit by an unmanned aerial vehicle as it was heading east along the Gulf of Aden.

    The bulk carrier was en route to Tamil, India after departing Port of Safaga in Egypt on January 11, as per marine traffic portal Vesselfinder.

    India’s navy, which assisted the cargo ship, released the images of the attack’s aftermath.

    The photographs show the destroyed parts of the railings and a metal grille hanging loose.

    The stern of the warship was charred after the fire broke out onboard yesterday.

    The merchant vessel sent out a distress call after the drone attack around midnight local time.

    Soon after, the the Indian Navy’s ship responded to the mayday and the fire was under control.

    “INS Visakhapatnam, undertaking anti-piracy patrol in the Gulf of Aden, acknowledged the distress call and intercepted the vessel at 0030 hrs on January 18, 2024 in order to provide assistance,” the Navy said in a statement.

    Genco Picardy, with 22 crew members, reported no casualties and continued to the next port of call.

    The Iran-backed group claimed responsibility for the strike after leading a string of brazen attacks on ships since November.

    The Yemeni Armed Forces confirmed on Wednesday that a response to the American and British attacks is inevitably coming, and that any new attack will not remain without response and punishment.

    An official statement read: “The naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a targeting operation against the American ship (Ginko Picardie) in the Gulf of Aden with a number of suitable naval missiles, and the hit was accurate and direct, thanks to God.

    “The Yemeni armed forces will not hesitate to target all sources of threat in the Arab and Red Bahrain within the legitimate right to defend dear Yemen and to continue supporting the oppressed Palestinian people.”

    Following the latest attack, the US has launched a fourth round of strikes against the rebels in just under a week.

    The US swiftly hit back with strikes targeting several sites that were prepared to launch further assaults, a US official confirmed to CBS News on Wednesday.

    Washington said it will re-designate the group as “global terrorists”.

    The new designation will require US financial institutions to freeze Houthi funds and its members will be banned from the US.

    A statement from US Central command read: “US Central Command forces conducted strikes on 14 Iran-backed Houthi missiles that were loaded to be fired in Houthi controlled areas in Yemen.

    “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.

    “These strikes, along with other actions we have taken, will 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.”

    On Tuesday, the US military pounded the Iran-backed rebels with another airstrike on a stash of anti-ship ballistic missiles in Yemen.

    Since the UK and the US smashed dozens of military targets last week in Yemen, the furious rebel group has vowed “unimaginable” revenge.

    And earlier on Tuesday, a missile fired from Yemen hit a Greek-owned cargo ship in the Red Sea.

    Tuesday’s attack comes after the Houthis hit a US-owned cargo ship with a three-rocket barrage on Monday.

    It came just hours after a US warship downed a cruise missile fired by the Houthi rebels.

    The Houthi attacks are a major blow to world trade — and threaten UK petrol prices as tensions explode in the Middle East and the Israel and Gaza conflict rages on.

    Warlords with drones from Iran are threatening vessels sailing to the crucial Suez Canal through a Red Sea straight.

    About 12 per cent of global commercial shipping uses the route — and so far more than 2,000 vessels have been forced to divert thousands of miles.

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  • U.S. Puts Houthis Rebels Back on List of Global Terrorists

    U.S. Puts Houthis Rebels Back on List of Global Terrorists

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    WASHINGTON — The United States on Wednesday put Yemen’s Houthis rebels back on its list of specially designated global terrorists, piling financial sanctions on top of American military strikes in the Biden administration’s latest attempt to stop the militants’ attacks on global shipping.

    Officials said they would design the financial penalties to minimize harm to Yemen’s 32 million people, who are among the world’s poorest and hungriest after years of war between the Iran-backed Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition.

    But aid officials expressed concern. The decision would only add “another level of uncertainty and threat for Yemenis still caught in one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises,” Oxfam America associate director Scott Paul said.

    The sanctions that come with the formal designation are meant to sever violent extremist groups from their sources of financing.

    President Donald Trump’s administration designated the Houthis as global terrorists and a foreign terrorist organization in one of his last acts in office. President Joe Biden reversed course early on, at the time citing the humanitarian threat that the sanctions posed to ordinary Yemenis.

    Military strikes by the U.S. and Britain against Houthi targets in Yemen have failed to stop weeks of drone, rocket and missile strikes by Houthi forces on commercial shipping transiting the Red Sea route, which borders Yemen.

    The Houthis are one in a network of Iran- and Hamas-allied militant groups around the Middle East that have escalated attacks on Israel, the U.S. and others since Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.

    The Houthis were originally a clan-based rebel movement. They seized Yemen’s capital in 2014 and withstood a subsequent yearslong invasion led by Saudi Arabia aimed at driving the Houthis from power. Two-thirds of Yemen’s people live in territory now controlled by the Houthis.

    Critics say the additional broad U.S. sanctions may have little effect on the Houthis, a defiant and relatively isolated group with few known assets in the U.S. to be threatened. There is also concern that designating the Houthis as terrorists may complicate international attempts to broker a peace deal in the now-subsided war with Saudi Arabia.

    War and chronic misgovernment have left 24 million Yemenis at risk of hunger and disease, and roughly 14 million are in acute need of humanitarian assistance, the United Nations says. Aid groups during the height of Yemen’s war issued repeated warnings that millions of Yemenis were on the brink of famine.

    Aid organizations worry that just the fear of running afoul of U.S. regulations could be enough to scare away shippers, banks and others in the commercial supply chain that Yemenis depend upon for survival. Yemen imports 90% of its food.

    U.S. officials said the sanctions would exempt commercial shipments of food, medicine and fuel, and humanitarian assistance into Yemeni ports. The U.S. will wait 30 days to put the sanctions into effect, officials said, giving shipping companies, banks, insurers and others time to prepare.

    Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said in a statement that the U.S. would roll out “unprecedented” exemptions in the sanctions for staples including food to “help prevent adverse impacts on the Yemeni people,” adding that they “should not pay the price for the actions of the Houthis.”

    The administration, for now, is not reimposing the more severe designation of foreign terrorist organization on the Houthis. That would have barred Americans, along with people and organizations subject to U.S. jurisdiction, from providing “material support” to the Houthis. Aid groups said that step could have the effect of criminalizing ordinary trade and assistance to Yemenis.

    The U.S will reevaluate the designation if the Houthis comply, Sullivan said.

    Jared Rowell, the Yemen country director for the International Rescue Committee, said last week that the attacks and counterattacks already were interrupting the delivery of goods and aid into Yemen, delaying shipments of vital commodities and raising prices for food and fuel.

    Conservatives have pressed for the foreign terrorist designation to be reimposed ever since the Biden administration lifted it. Calls for tougher action against the Houthis and and their Iranian backers have grown louder since the Israel-Hamas war.

    When Biden was asked last week whether the Houthis were a terrorist group, he replied, “I think they are.”

    Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdul-Salam said the U.S. terrorist label would not deter the group. “Instead, we consider it a badge of honor for Yemen for its support of Palestinian resistance in Gaza,” Abdul-Salam said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

    Hisham Al-Omeisy, a Yemeni analyst living in the Washington, area, said the U.S. designation plays into the Houthis’ narrative to the world that they are standing up to a superpower to champion Muslims everywhere.

    At home, the designation helps the Houthis’ message to Yemenis that the U.S. is the cause of their suffering, Al-Omeisy said.

    In the past, he said, the Houthis were angered that “the U.S. was basically treating them as a bug on the windshield.”

    Now, “they’re like, ‘You know what, they respect us,’” he said of the Houthis’ attitude. “‘Yeah, we can go toe to toe with the Americans, right?’”

    It’s not clear if any U.S. partners are working on similar sanctions.

    European Commission spokesman Peter Stano said the EU “is working intensively with partners and coordinating in the international efforts to stop these unacceptable violations of international law, which bring dangers to freedom and safety of navigation in the Red Sea.”

    He told reporters Wednesday that the 27 member countries are discussing the possibility of setting up a naval mission to help “restore the stability and safety of naval traffic in the Red Sea.” He declined to comment on whether sanctions are being discussed.

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  • Iran strikes PAKISTAN ‘killing 2 kids’ as Middle East warzone spills out more

    Iran strikes PAKISTAN ‘killing 2 kids’ as Middle East warzone spills out more

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    IRAN has attacked targets inside Pakistan as the Middle East’s warzone spills out.

    Pakistan‘s Foreign Ministry tonight claimed two children were killed in “unprovoked violation” of the country’s airspace.

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    Tensions have been flaring in the Middle East amid Houthi (pictured) attacksCredit: Getty
    Pakistan claimed Iranian military violated the country's airspace

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    Pakistan claimed Iranian military violated the country’s airspaceCredit: Rex

    Iranian state media previously confirmed the strike on bases of a Sunni militant group – before later withdrawing reports.

    The attack further raises tensions in a Middle East already roiled by Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

    It also threatens the relations between Iran and Pakistan, which long have eyed each other with suspicion.

    Iran‘s Foreign Ministry statement said Pakistan strongly condemned the attack on its Balochistan province.

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    “This violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty is completely unacceptable and can have serious consequences,” it warned.

    “Pakistan strongly condemns the unprovoked violation of its airspace by Iran which resulted in death of two innocent children while injuring three girls,” the statement read.

    “This violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty is completely unacceptable and can have serious consequences.”

    It added: “Pakistan has always said terrorism is a common threat to all countries in the region that requires coordinated action.

    “Such unilateral acts are not in conformity with good neighbourly relations and can seriously undermine bilateral trust and confidence.”

    Two Pakistani security officials said the Iranian strikes damaged a mosque in Baluchistan’s Panjgur district, about 30 miles inside Pakistan from the Iranian border.

    The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to reporters.

    Iran has fought in border areas against the militants, but a missile and drone attack on Pakistan is unprecedented.

    It comes shortly after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards bombarded Israel’s so-called “spy headquarters” in Iraq with ballistic missiles aimed near the US consulate.

    The warped terrorist army claimed responsibility for the brazen ambush which killed four, injured six others and sparked fury over the concerning escalation.

    Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said in a statement on Monday that missiles were used to destroy the “spy headquarters” of Israel in Iraq, targeting “anti-Iranian terrorist groups” amid rising tensions in the Middle East.

    Chilling video showed the moment a huge blaze engulfed the sky above Erbil, the Kurdish region of Iraq, where the rockets landed.

    The IRGC claimed to have hit the HQ of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, close to the US consulate.

    They also claimed to have blasted “terrorist operations” in Syria, destroying them.

    Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani claimed that Tehran was exercising it’s “legal right to deter national security threats” in the fatal ambush.

    “After the enemy miscalculated by targeting the Islamic Republic, Iran retaliated with its high intelligence capability in a precise and targeted operation against the culprits’ headquarters,” Kanaani said.

    Iraq slammed the attacks today and said it would rail against Iran with all possible legal measures, including with a complaint to the UN security council.

    The war between Israel and Hamas following from the October 7 massacre has seen Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon dragged into fighting in the Middle East.

    And Iran’s terror proxies including Hezbollah and the Houthis have gone up against Israel, the US and UK as fears of an all-out war in the region grow.

    It comes after high profile Iranian general Razi Mousavi was recently killed in Syria and two Hamas and Hezbollah commanders were also taken out – both with close links to Tehran.

    And the US and the UK struck Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last week in an attempt to weaken the terror proxy’s strongholds.

    Houthi rebels then targeted an American warship in the Red Sea on Sunday in response – failing to hit the ship with an anti-cruise missile.

    Israeli strikes have hit Lebanon as well, killing over 130 Hezbollah fighters including some key commanders.

    And almost 20 further Hezbollah militants have been killed by strikes in Syria.

    Two members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard were killed during an Israeli strike in Syria just weeks ago.

    And after a senior Iranian general was eliminated by an IDF hit, Tehran vowed to seek revenge, swearing that Israel “will certainly pay for this crime“.

    Just days ago a suspected US drone strike killed an Iran-backed militia commander in Iraq, Abu Taqwa Al-Saedi, who had masterminded recent attacks on American troops stationed in the region.

    The drone reportedly fired two rockets at a building in Bagdad, Iraq’s capital, with Iraqi officials slamming the attack and vowing retaliation.

    The US strike came after Iranian-backed militias working in the area carried out more than 100 attacks on bases housing US troops in both Iraq and Syria.

    The United States has 900 troops deployed in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State militants.

    Yemen’s Houthis, pictured waving a Palestinian flag and holding up their firearms, have aligned with Hamas

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    Yemen’s Houthis, pictured waving a Palestinian flag and holding up their firearms, have aligned with HamasCredit: Reuters
    Iranian protesters burn an Israeli flag at a recent anti-Israel rally

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    Iranian protesters burn an Israeli flag at a recent anti-Israel rallyCredit: Getty

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  • Israeli strike in Damascus targets Iran-aligned paramilitary officials

    Israeli strike in Damascus targets Iran-aligned paramilitary officials

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    An Israeli attack on the Syrian capital of Damascus on Saturday destroyed a residential building where Iran-aligned paramilitary leaders were meeting.

    Precision-targeted Israeli missiles destroyed a multi-story building in the western Damascus neighborhood of Mazzeh, Reuters reported. The structure was occupied by Iranian advisers assisting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s administration, according to the report.

    The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based non-profit, said at least five people were killed in the missile attack.

    An official of an Iran-aligned group in the region told the Associated Press that the building was used by officials of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and claimed that 10 people were either killed or wounded in the attack.

    The lastest Israeli attack signifies yet another escalation of already heightened tensions in the region.

    Israel has intensified its airstrikes against Palestinian targets, Lebanese operatives and Iran-linked targets in Syria following the October 7 attacks by Hamas. On December 25, an Israeli airstrike in Damascus killed Iranian general Seyed Razi Mousavi, a veteran of the Revolutionary Guard in Syria.

    In recent weeks, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have been targeting commercial vessels in the Red Sea. Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border have increased as a result of rockets fired from Syria into northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

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    Jeremy Van Der Haegen

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  • U.S.-owned container vessel struck by an anti-ship ballistic missile off the coast of Yemen

    U.S.-owned container vessel struck by an anti-ship ballistic missile off the coast of Yemen

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    Men stand near a billboard bearing the image of a commercial ship with the flag of Israel as it is burning after Yemen’s Houthi-affiliated naval forces struck it, at a street on January 10, 2024 in Sana’a, Yemen.

    Mohammed Hamoud | Getty Images

    A U.S.-owned and operated container ship on Monday was struck by an anti-ship ballistic missile from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, according to the U.S. Central Command.

    The U.S. said via social media that the attack took place at around 4 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET) but the Marshall Islands-flagged vessel, known as the M/V Gibraltar Eagle, reported no injuries or significant damage and continued on with its journey.

    The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations organization said authorities were investigating the incident, which occurred southeast of Aden in Yemen. The UKMTO said ships were “advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity.”

    It comes shortly after the U.S. and U.K. launched joint strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. The Iran-backed group has been attacking ships traversing the Red Sea since late last year, wreaking havoc on global trade and drawing international condemnation.

    The militants claim their attacks in the Red Sea are in response to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

    British maritime security firm Ambrey said three missiles were reportedly launched by the Houthis, according to Reuters, with two not reaching the sea and one hitting the vessel.

    The U.S.-owned bulk carrier was said to have been transiting in the westbound lane of the International Recommended Transit Corridor, a shipping route through the Gulf of Aden. The missile reportedly caused a fire in a hold.

    Ambrey was reported to have said it assessed the attack to have targeted U.S. interests in response to recent military strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

    Last week, U.S. and U.K. forces carried out airstrikes on over 60 targets at 16 Houthi militant locations, including missile launch sites, production facilities and radar systems. The strikes came after the Houthis defied a warning to stop targeting maritime vessels in the Red Sea.

    The Houthis, which oppose the U.S. and Israeli influence in the Middle East, is not internationally recognized as the government of Yemen but it does control large parts of the country. This includes the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial maritime chokepoint that connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

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  • Dozens killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza overnight amid fears of widening conflict

    Dozens killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza overnight amid fears of widening conflict

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    More than 30 Palestinians, including young children, were killed in Israeli bombardments overnight into Saturday in the Gaza Strip, officials said, while a new U.S. strike against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen heightened fears that the Israel-Hamas war could escalate into a regional conflict. 

    Fears of a wider conflagration have been palpable since the start of the war, triggered by the deadly Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas and other Gaza militants.

    New fronts quickly opened, with Iran-backed groups — Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria — carrying out a range of attacks. From the start, the U.S. increased its military presence in the region to deter an escalation.

    Following a Houthi campaign of drone and missile attacks on over two dozen commercial ships in the Red Sea, the U.S. and Britain launched multiple airstrikes against the rebels Friday, and the U.S. hit another site Saturday. According to the Pentagon, the strikes have struck at least 60 targets, including command centers, missile and drone launch sites, and defense systems. The Houthis have vowed retaliation for the attacks, prompting the U.S. Navy to warn American ships to stay out of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden for the next 72 hours. 

    On Friday, President Joe Biden dismissed concerns that the U.S. strikes could antagonize Iran, which backs the Houthis. 

    “Iran does not want a war with us,” Biden said in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Friday. 


    U.S. launches another airstrike on site believed to be controlled by Houthis in Yemen

    03:26

    In another fallout from the war, the International Court of Justice heard allegations by South Africa this week that Israel committed genocide against the Palestinians. The complaint cited the soaring death toll and hardships among Gaza civilians, along with inflammatory comments from Israeli leaders cited as proof of what South Africa said was genocidal intent.

    In counter arguments Friday, Israel asked that the case be dismissed as meritless. Israel’s defense argued that Israel had the right to fight back against an enemy bent on its destruction, that South Africa had barely mentioned Hamas and that it ignored what Israel considers attempts to mitigate civilian harm.

    The court was asked by South Africa to issue interim injunctions, including calling for a halt to Israel’s offensive.

    In Gaza, where Hamas has put up stiff resistance to Israel’s blistering air and ground campaign, the war continued unabated.

    The Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday that 135 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours, bringing the overall toll of the war to 23,843. The count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians, but the ministry has said about two-thirds of the dead are women and children. The ministry said the total number of war-wounded surpassed 60,000.

    Following an Israeli airstrike before dawn Saturday, video provided by Gaza’s Civil Defense department showed rescue workers searching through the twisted rubble of a building in Gaza City by flashlight.

    Footage showed them carrying a young girl wrapped in blankets with injuries to her face, and at least two other children who appeared dead. A boy, covered in dust, winced as he was loaded into an ambulance.

    Israel Palestinians
    A Palestinian child walks past factors destroyed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Deir al Balah on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024. on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024.

    Adel Hana / AP


    The attack on the home in the Daraj neighborhood killed at least 20 people, according to Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal.

    Another strike late Friday near the southern city of Rafah on the Egyptian border killed at least 13 people, including two children. The bodies of those killed, primarily from a displaced family from central Gaza, were taken to the city’s Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital where they were seen by an Associated Press reporter.

    Israel has argued Hamas is responsible for the high civilian casualties, saying its fighters make use of civilian buildings and launch attacks from densely populated urban areas.

    The Israeli military released a video Saturday that it said showed the destruction of two ready-to-use rocket launching compounds in Al-Muharraqa in central Gaza. A large grove of palm trees and some homes are seen in the frame. In the video, a rocket is being thrown into the air by the blast. The military said there had been dozens of launchers ready to be used.

    With the war in Gaza entering its 100th day on Sunday, the World Health Organization has said only 15 of the territories’ 36 hospitals still partially functional, according to OCHA, the United Nations’ humanitarian affairs agency.

    The main hospital in central Gaza, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah, went dark Friday morning after running out of fuel.


    Palestinians face starvation in Gaza, United Nations warns

    03:59

    Staff were able to keep ventilators and incubators operating with solar-charged batteries during the day, and received a small emergency shipment of fuel from another hospital late Friday.

    Fuel was expected to run out again on Saturday unless the WHO is able to deliver a promised shipment, hospital officials said. Aid deliveries were being disrupted by a renewed drop in telecommunications connectivity in much of Gaza, which began late Friday.

    In its Oct. 7 attack, Hamas and other militants killed some 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians. About 250 more were taken hostage, and while some have been released or confirmed dead, more than half are believed to still be in captivity.

    Since the start of Israel’s ground operation in late October, 186 Israeli soldiers were killed and another 1,099 injured in Gaza, according to the military. More than 85% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced as a result of Israel’s air and ground offensive, and vast swaths of the territory have been leveled.

    Amid already severe shortages of food, clean water and fuel in Gaza, OCHA said in its daily report that Israel’s severe constraints on humanitarian missions and outright denials had increased since the start of the year. The agency said only 21% of planned deliveries of food, medicine, water and other supplies have been successfully reaching northern Gaza.

    Israel Palestinians
    A poster calls for the return of a man taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7.

    Leo Correa / AP


    “These denials paralyze the ability of humanitarian partners to respond meaningfully, consistently and at-scale to widespread humanitarian needs,” the agency said.

    The U.N. has accused Israel of blocking efforts to bring aid to northern Gaza, but Israel claims it’s Hamas diverting the supplies. Roughly 110 aid trucks enter Gaza each day, an increase from the 70 such trucks that were entering the territory daily before the war. While there are “more than enough” supplies, according to Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza head Colonel Moshe Tetro, agecy understaffing make it impossible to distribute them.  

    American and other international efforts pushing Israel to do more to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians have met with little success.

    At the same time, Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the territory’s main hospital that had been shut down since November, had begun partially functioning again, the WHO said Friday.

    Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said his organization has delivered 9,300 liters (2,460 gallons) of fuel to Shifa, allowing a 60-person medical team to begin treating more than 1,000 patients.

    The war in Gaza will mark its hundredth day on Sunday.

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  • U.S. launches another strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen

    U.S. launches another strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen

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    American forces conducted another airstrike on a Houthi-controlled site in Yemen early Saturday, U.S. officials confirmed.

    U.S. Central Command reported that the USS Carney, a destroyer, conducted the strike at 3:45 a.m. local time Saturday on a Houthi radar site using Tomahawk missiles. No further details were provided, although Associated Press journalists in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, heard one loud explosion.

    The airstrike came just a day after the U.S. and U.K. launched strikes on dozens of targets in Houthi-controlled Yemen in response to the Iranian-backed rebel group’s ongoing assault targeting shipping vessels in the Red Sea.

    U.S. Central Command said Friday’s strikes hit more than 60 targets at 16 Iranian-backed Houthi militant locations and that the targets included “command and control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities, and air defense radar systems.”

    US, UK carry out airstrikes in Yemen
    A view from the U.S. naval fleet as the U.S. and U.K. carried out airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Jan. 12, 2024.

    U.S. Central Command/Anadolu via Getty Images


    A Houthi military spokesperson said Friday’s attacks left at least five people dead and six wounded.

    Despite the airstrikes, the Houthi movement’s Supreme Political Council vowed Friday to continue targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea. Thousands of demonstrators turned out in Sanaa Friday, burning U.S. flags and chanting “God is great, death to America, death to Israel.” 

    President Biden indicated to reporters Friday that the U.S. would fight back if Houthis retaliate.

    “We will make sure to respond to the Houthis as they continue this outrageous behavior along with our allies,” Biden said while conducting a small business tour in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

    In a joint statement earlier Friday, the U.S., U.K., Australia, Bahrain, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea, said the strikes were in response to “continued illegal, dangerous, and destabilizing Houthi attacks against vessels, including commercial shipping, transiting the Red Sea.”

    Since Nov. 19, there have been at least 28 attacks from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, according to CENTCOM. The attacks have prompted several giant shipping companies to avoid the Suez Canal and transit around all of Africa instead.  

    On Jan. 9, Houthi rebels launched their largest such attack yet. A total of 18 drones, two-antiship cruise missiles and one anti-ship ballistic missile were successfully shot down by U.S. and U.K. forces patrolling the Red Sea, with no injuries or damage.

    The White House last month accused Tehran of being “deeply involved” in the Houthi’s Red Sea attacks, an allegation Iran’s deputy foreign minister denied. The Biden administration has focused on preventing the Israel-Hamas conflict from turning into a wider regional war across the Middle East, but since the war started, Iranian-backed proxies have been launching attacks both in the Red Sea and against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. 

    There have been at least 130 attacks by Iranian-backed militias on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17, including at least three since Monday. 

    — Eleanor Watson, Jordan Freiman and Tucker Reals contributed to this report. 

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  • After strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, concern grows of widening Middle East conflict

    After strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, concern grows of widening Middle East conflict

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    After strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, concern grows of widening Middle East conflict – CBS News


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    U.S. and U.K. forces conducted airstrikes on Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen in response to dozens of Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea. President Biden issued fresh warnings to Houthi rebels Friday that the U.S. will fight back if the Houthis retaliate. Charlie D’Agata reports from Tel Aviv.

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  • Government funding deal in jeopardy as partial shutdown deadline looms

    Government funding deal in jeopardy as partial shutdown deadline looms

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    Government funding deal in jeopardy as partial shutdown deadline looms – CBS News


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    House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing pressure from some conservative legislators over agreements made with Democrats on government spending. Siobhan Hughes, a congressional reporter for the Wall Street Journal, joins CBS News from Capitol Hill.

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  • Big protests break out in Yemen after U.S.-British attacks

    Big protests break out in Yemen after U.S.-British attacks

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    By Clauda Tanios

    DUBAI (Reuters) -Tens of thousands of Yemenis gathered in several cities on Friday to hear their leaders condemn U.S. and British strikes on their country in response to attacks by Houthi militants on Red Sea shipping.

    The U.S. and Britain carried out dozens of air strikes on Houthi military targets overnight, widening a wave of regional conflict unleashed by Israel’s war in Gaza.

    “Your strikes on Yemen are terrorism,” said Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, a member of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, referring to the United States. “The United States is the Devil.”

    After Gaza’s Hamas rulers attacked Israel on Oct. 7, triggering Israel’s assault on Gaza, the Iran-aligned Houthis began attacking shipping lanes and firing drones and missiles towards Israel, saying they would not stop until Israel’s offensive stopped.

    The Houthis, who rule much of Yemen, said they would target all ships heading to Israel, more than 1,000 miles away, and warned international shipping companies against using Israeli ports.

    The Houthis are one of several groups in the Iran-aligned “Axis of Resistance” that have been taking aim at Israeli and U.S. targets since their Palestinian ally Hamas killed more than 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7. The groups hold the U.S., Israel’s closest ally, partly responsible for the crisis and the scope of Israel’s massive response.

    “We did not attack the shores of America, nor did we move in the American islands, nor did we attack them. Your strikes on our country are terrorism,” said Al-Houthi.

    “They are terrorists and they are amazing at lying to the people of the world, but the awareness of the Yemeni people is a different awareness. Do you, Yemeni, think that America is defending itself or is it a terrorist?”

    The Iraqi militia group Harakat al-Nujaba, also aligned with Iran, said that American interests and countries allied to the U.S. would not be safe from now on. In Sanaa, protesters stamped on Israeli and American flags.

    U.S. and allied forces have been attacked at least 130 times in Iraq and Syria Since Oct. 17, according to Washington.

    The United States has no plans to deploy more forces to the region, Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder said.

    (Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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