AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: The US military has destroyed a number of Houthi drones, remotely operated boats and ballistic missiles aimed at ships in international commercial channels.
The US Central Command said in a statement on Tuesday morning Yemen time that its forces had destroyed three drones fired by the Houthis from Yemen over the Gulf of Aden, as well as another drone destroyed in a Houthi-controlled Yemeni territory. The US military also destroyed one drone boat, a drone, and an anti-ship ballistic missile fired by the Houthis in the Red Sea before they could reach their intended targets along the critical maritime route.
“These weapons presented a clear and imminent threat to US and coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region. This reckless and dangerous behavior by Iranian-backed Houthis continues to threaten regional stability and security,” the US Central Command said in the statement.
In Sanaa, the Houthis did not claim credit for fresh assaults on ships in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday, as they regularly do hours or days after they strike ships. On Saturday, the Houthis restarted a two-week hiatus in their anti-ship campaign by shooting missiles at a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden. According to the Joint Maritime Information Center, the Liberian-flagged cargo freighter Groton came under two missile attacks on Saturday afternoon while traveling east of Aden, Yemen’s southern port city.
In a statement issued by the militia’s military 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 the Israeli bombings, the Houthis have not claimed any further assaults on Israel or its ships in the past two weeks.
Since November, the Houthis have seized a commercial ship, sunk two others, and launched dozens of missile, drone and drone boat attacks on commercial and naval ships in international shipping lanes off Yemen, claiming to be acting in solidarity with the Palestinian people against Israel’s war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Rashad Al-Alimi, the chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, said on Monday that his government reversed its harsh economic actions against Sanaa banks to promote “people’s interests.”
In a surprise move that sparked outrage in Yemen, the Yemeni government agreed to a UN-brokered agreement 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 to Jordan, Egypt and India, reversing previous strong pledges to punish banks in Sanaa that refuse to relocate their headquarters to the government-controlled Aden, the interim capital.
“We are in an economic fight, and the Presidential Leadership Council has decided with full conviction that these choices may need to be reversed in order 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 that 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 to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen for assisting the Yemeni government and ally troops in liberating Yemeni regions from the Houthis.
“We agreed to the roadmap and now the ball is in the Houthis’ court, who continue to resist peace,” he said, adding: “If it hadn’t been for Operation Decisive Storm and the Yemenis’ resistance and sacrifices, the militia would already dominate all of Yemen.”
