The U.S. and the U.K. “successfully conducted strikes” against Houthi targets in Yemen, said President Joe Biden late January 11.
“Today, at my direction, U.S. military forces — together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands — successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways,” Biden said.
According to CNBC, the U.S. Air Force struck over 60 targets across 16 Houthi militant locations, said U.S. Central Command. The strikes, which came as a response to “attacks against vessels, including commercial shipping, transiting the Red Sea,” began at 2:30 a.m. local time on January 11 in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.
In response to the attacks, Houthis vowed that the U.S. and the U.K. would eventually pay a “heavy price.”
“Our country was subjected to a massive aggressive attack by American and British ships, submarines, and warplanes, and America and Britain will undoubtedly have to prepare to pay a heavy price and bear all the dire consequences of this blatant aggression,” said a senior Houthi official on social media.
According to Reuters, several oil tankers scheduled to travel through the Red Sea diverted their course overnight in response to the U.S. and U.K. strikes, based on shipping data from LSEG and Kpler.
