British Typhoon aircraft after participating in bombing Houthi targets in Yemen (Reuters)
The US military announced that yesterday, Thursday, Central Command forces launched 7 “self-defense” strikes against 4 Houthi drone boats and 7 anti-ship cruise missiles that were prepared to be launched at ships in the Red Sea.
The army added - in a statement - that the US Central Command confirmed that the missiles and drone boats located in areas controlled by the Houthis in Yemen represent an imminent threat to US Navy ships and commercial ships in the region.
The statement added that these measures will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer.
For its part, Houthi media said that American and British bombing targeted the Ras Issa area in the Al-Salif District in Al-Hudaydah Governorate, western Yemen, with two raids.
For his part, the group's leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, said, "The Yemen Front will continue to target the Israeli enemy until the aggression and siege on the Gaza Strip stops."
He added, in a televised speech, that the American talk about the impact of the strikes on the military group’s capabilities is just entertainment and face-saving, as he put it.
Reduced ship traffic
In this context, Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, confirmed that ship traffic in the Red Sea decreased by half last January compared to last year.
In a related development, Maersk Shipping CEO Vincent Clerc said that the US Navy informed him of its current inability to guarantee the safety of navigation for all ships in the Red Sea.
Clerk added that the situation in the region is escalating, expressing his pessimism about the conditions of maritime shipping due to the situation in the Middle East and the Red Sea, as he put it.
In solidarity with the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to continuous Israeli aggression since October 7, 2023, the Houthis are targeting, with missiles and drones, cargo ships in the Red Sea that are owned or operated by Israeli companies, or that transport goods to and from Israel.
To try to deter them, American and British forces launched strikes on their sites in Yemen since January 12, and the American army alone carries out strikes from time to time on missiles that it says are prepared for launch.
The Houthi attacks are affecting shipping traffic in the strategic region through which 12% of global trade passes, and have caused the cost of transportation to double as a result of shipping companies diverting their ships to the Cape of Good Hope, in the far south of Africa, which prolongs the journey between Asia and Europe for about a week.
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies