AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s Houthi militia on Thursday threatened to punish the US for launching a series of airstrikes on areas under their control in Yemen and vowed to continue attacking ships in international shipping lanes in support of the Palestinian people.
Nasruddin Amer, a Houthi media official, said that the US would “pay the price” for attacking their areas in Yemen and that the US was trying to put pressure on them to stop their attacks on ships as well as lift their ban on US ships passing through the Red and Arabian seas.
“We confirm that our position on Gaza and Lebanon will remain unchanged and that they will pay the price for their continued aggression against our country,” Amer said in a post on X.
The threat came as US Central Command said on Thursday that its forces carried out a series of airstrikes on hardened underground storage facilities in Yemen where the Houthis conceal missiles and other weapons that are used to strike ships in international shipping lanes.
The US military said the airstrikes, which used the B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers for the first time, were intended to weaken Houthi military power and push them to stop threatening US and international naval forces as well as commercial vessels.
“These actions were taken to degrade the Houthis’ capability to continue their reckless and unlawful attacks on international commercial shipping and on US, coalition, and merchant personnel and vessels in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden, and to degrade their ability to threaten regional partners,” the US Central Command said, adding there had been no reported human casualties as a result of their airstrikes.
Residents in Sanaa reported large explosions in various areas on Thursday morning, with amateur videos showing large fireballs and thick smoke billowing from the targeted locations.
The Houthis’ Political Bureau strongly condemned the US airstrikes in their areas, describing them as “cowardly aggression” that would not “go unpunished.”
Since November, the Houthis have launched hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones and drone boats at international naval and commercial ships in the Red Sea and other seas off Yemen, sinking two ships and forcing international shipping companies to avoid the Red Sea in favor of the longer and more expensive route round South Africa.
The Houthis claim that they target only ships with links to Israel and those sailing to Israel as a means to pressure Israel to end its war in the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
The US responded to the Houthi ship attacks by designating the Yemeni militia a terrorist organization, forming marine task forces to protect ships and launching waves of strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
At the same time, Abdulrahman Barman, a Yemeni human rights advocate and director of the American Center for Justice, told Arab News on Thursday that the Houthis are preparing to try six abducted Yemenis who work for the US and US-funded organizations after their investigations are completed.
The Houthis have referred to the criminal prosecution of Abdul Kader Al-Saqqaf, a retired Yemeni worker, as well as five other current and former Yemeni employees of the US Embassy in Sanaa, the US Agency for International Development, and an American English language institute who were abducted by the Houthis in 2021, Barman said.
The abducted individuals appeared in a video released by the Houthis in which they confessed to spying for the US, confessions Yemeni activists say were taken at gunpoint.
“After years in prison, the Houthis turned them over to the prosecution to legalize their arrest, torture and violation of the law,” Barman said.
