The Iran-aligned Yemeni rebel group waging an ongoing campaign of attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea over Israel’s war in Gaza has told Newsweek that it would respond forcefully to the U.S. bombing Yemen.
“Any strike against us will be responded to, absolutely, without the slightest doubt, with all force and determination, and the region will be on the verge of escalation, the end of which no one knows,” Nasreddin Amer, deputy information secretary for Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, told Newsweekon Thursday as reports first emerged of up to a dozen strikes being conducted by the United States and the United Kingdom in Yemen.
“Any strike against us has no justification,” Amer added, “as it is only support for Israel to continue killing the oppressed Palestinian people.”
U.S. President Joe Biden later confirmed the operation in a statement issued by the White House, saying that the U.S. and the U.K. jointly operated “with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands” to conduct “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.”
“These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea—including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history,” the U.S. leader added. “These attacks have endangered U.S. personnel, civilian mariners, and our partners, jeopardized trade, and threatened freedom of navigation.”
Biden referred to the strikes as “a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes,” and warned he “will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.”
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