AL-MUKALLA: Yemen's Houthi militias on Friday vowed vengeance against US and UK airstrikes on regions under their control in reaction to their Red Sea raids.

This comes as hundreds of Houthi sympathizers took to the streets of Sanaa and other northern Yemeni provinces to condemn the attacks and show solidarity with the people of Gaza.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the UK and US carried out 73 airstrikes on different locations in Sanaa, Hodeidah, Taiz, Hajjah, and Saada on Friday morning, killing five of their troops and injuring six more.

He vowed to strike back at US and UK targets in the Red Sea or on land.

“The American and British enemies hold full responsibility for their illegal attack on our Yemeni people, and it will not go unanswered or unpunished. Yemen's military forces will not hesitate to attack danger sources and hostile targets on land and at sea in defense of Yemen, its sovereignty, and its independence,” Sarea said in a broadcast statement.

The US Central Command said on Friday that it has carried out attacks on more than 60 targets in Houthi-controlled regions, including command centers, munition depots, launching systems, industrial facilities, and air defense radar systems.

People in Sanaa, Hodeidah, and Taiz reported hearing massive explosions and enormous balls of flames billowing from Houthi military installations when the US and UK started hitting them at about 2.45 a.m. (local time).

The operations were carried out in reprisal for more than 20 Houthi missile and drone assaults on commercial and naval ships in the Red Sea.

The Houthis claim to be targeting only Israeli-linked vessels sailing to Israel in order to push Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza.

Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, head of the group’s Supreme Revolutionary Committee, called the airstrikes "barbaric and terrorist," and said that the militia will react against the two nations and continue to block the Red Sea in front of all Israel-bound ships in support of Palestine.

“The American-British attacks are barbaric, terrorist, and unjustifiable action that reveals a cruel psyche,” Al-Houthi said in a post on X.

Mohammed Abdul Sallam, the top Houthi negotiator, reiterated condemnation of the UK and US bombings, reaffirming the militia's assertions that they were solely targeting Israeli ships and not endangering Red Sea security.

“They committed foolishness with this treacherous aggression, and they were mistaken if they believed it would prevent Yemen from backing Palestine and Gaza. Yemen maintains its religious and humanitarian position and will do all possible to support Gaza,” Abdul Sallam said on X.

At the same time, the airstrikes sparked bitter debate in Yemen, primarily among Houthi opponents, with some Yemenis strongly supporting the airstrikes and calling for the Houthi to be expelled from areas under their control in Yemen, while others saw the airstrikes as an aggression that would fuel instability in Yemen.

Kamel Al-Khodani, a Houthi critic, backed the bombings and advocated for more ground military actions to drive the Houthis out of Hodeidah and the other Yemeni provinces under their control.

“In the same way that you seek to eliminate the Houthi threat and its threat to international navigation, we seek to eliminate its dangers and crimes against us, and just as you seek to liberate the sea and protect your interests, we seek to liberate the land and protect our regions,” Al-Khodani said on x, that irritated Houthi sympathizers.

Despite being sentenced to death in absentia by a Houthi court for backing the Yemeni government, Yemeni MP Mohammed Nasser Al-Hazmi condemned the airstrikes, calling them an act of aggression against Yemen.

“Attacking any part of Yemen is deemed a clear and condemnable enmity, and no sensible person would support it,” Al-Hazmi said.

Yemen's government blamed Houthi assaults on ships in the Red Sea for prompting the US and UK to strike Yemen, accusing them of using the Gaza crisis for propaganda purposes.

Yemeni political experts say that the airstrikes were intended to convey a message of deterrence to the Houthis and would not eliminate Houthi threats to Red Sea international navigation traffic.

Maged Al-Madhaji, chairman of the Sanaa Center For Strategic Studies, said on X that airstrikes had already destroyed expectations of attaining peace in Yemen, and the trajectory of the situation in Yemen was dependent on "imminent" Houthi reprisal assaults.

“The US-UK strikes will not undermine the Houthis' ability to pose a threat in the Red Sea. Nonetheless, it's a calculated message of deterrence. The scale and scope of any subsequent strikes will expand depending on the Houthi response, which seems imminent,” Al-Madhaji said.