AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: The US military destroyed a number of Houthi drones, remotely operated boats and ballistic missiles targeting ships in international trade channels.
US Central Command said in a statement Tuesday morning, Yemen time, that its forces destroyed three drones fired by Yemen's Houthis over the Gulf of Aden, as well as another drone destroyed in Houthi-controlled Yemeni territory. The US military also destroyed a drone, a drone and an anti-ship ballistic missile fired by the Houthis into the Red Sea before they could reach their intended targets along the critical sea route.
“These weapons posed a clear and imminent threat to US and coalition forces as well as merchant shipping in the region. This reckless and dangerous behavior by the Iran-backed Houthis continues to threaten regional stability and security,” US Central Command said in the statement.
In Sanaa, the Houthis on Tuesday did not claim any further attacks on ships in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden, as they regularly do hours or days after they strike ships. On Saturday, the Houthis resumed a two-week hiatus in their anti-shipping campaign by firing missiles at a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden. According to the Joint Maritime Information Center, the Liberian-flagged cargo ship Groton came under two missile attacks on Saturday afternoon while traveling east of the southern Yemeni port city of Aden.
In a statement issued by militia spokesman Yahya Sarea, the Houthis claimed that the Groton was targeted because the ship's parent company violated their ban on going to Israeli ports.
Houthi attacks on ships have been halted since July 20, when Israeli jets targeted oil storage facilities and other targets in Hodeidah, a Houthi-held city in western Yemen. Despite their frequent threats to retaliate for Israeli bombing, the Houthis have not claimed any other attacks on Israel or its ships in the past two weeks.
Since November, the Houthis have seized one merchant ship, sunk two others and launched dozens of missile, drone and drone-boat attacks on merchant and naval vessels in international sea lanes off Yemen, claiming to be acting in solidarity with the Palestinian people against Israel. war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Rashad Al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen's Presidential Governing Council, said on Monday that his government had reversed its tough economic actions against banks in Sanaa to promote “the interests of the people”.
In a surprise move that sparked outrage in Yemen, the Yemeni government agreed to a UN-brokered deal with the Houthis to lift sanctions on banks in Sanaa and allow Yemenia Airways, the country's national airline, to increase flights from the Houthi-held Sanaa airport. in Jordan, Egypt and India, reversing strong earlier pledges to punish banks in Sanaa that refuse to move their headquarters to Aden, the interim, government-controlled capital.
“We are in an economic struggle, and the Presidential Leadership Council has decided with full conviction that these elections may have to be reversed to prioritize the interests of the Yemeni people above all other interests,” Al-Alimi said in an interview with State-run Hadhramaut.
The Yemeni leader also said his government had accepted the UN-brokered peace plan, known as the Roadmap, to end the war in Yemen and praised the Saudi-led Coalition for the Restoration of Legitimacy in Yemen for assisting the Yemeni government and of allied troops in Yemen. liberating Yemeni regions from the Houthis.
“We agreed to the roadmap and now the ball is in the court of the Houthis, who continue to resist peace,” he said, adding: “If it wasn't for Operation Decisive Storm and the resistance and sacrifices of the Yemenis, the militia. would already dominate all of Yemen.”
