Houthis Report 16 Dead In Biggest Joint US-UK Airstrikes Since Gaza War Began
Early on Friday Yemen's Houthis announced what appears to be the biggest mass casualty attack by the Western coalition since Red Sea hostilities began in the wake of Oct.7.
The joint British-U.S. airstrikes happened Thursday, and killed at least 16 people and wounded 35 others, according to Houthis statement. "We confirm this brutal aggression against Yemen as punishment for its position in support of Gaza, in support of Israel to continue its crimes of genocide against the wounded, besieged and steadfast Gaza Strip," Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said.
The strikes primarily focused on the port city of Hodeida, and the Houthis say that all killed there were civilians. According to a Yemeni account:
But the Houthis focused Friday morning on a strike they said struck a building housing Hodeida Radio and civilian homes in the port city on the Red Sea. Their Al Masirah satellite news channel aired images of one bloodied man being carried down stairs and others in the hospital, receiving aid. It said all the dead and nearly all the wounded from the strikes came from there.
The graphic footage of the attack aftermath can be viewed here.
While not acknowledging the death toll offered by the Houthis, the Pentagon confirmed that US F/A-18 fighter jets were involved in the operation over Yemen, having taken off from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier in the Red Sea.
Officials said additional warships also participated, which included attacks on "underground facilities, missile launchers, command and control sites, a Houthi vessel and other facilities."
The UK Defense Ministry also revealed its involvement, with a statement saying Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s conducted strikes on Hodeida and locations south in Ghulayfiqah.
UK's military said it targeted "buildings identified as housing drone ground control facilities and providing storage for very long-range drones, as well as surface-to-air weapons."
"The strikes were taken in self-defense in the face of an ongoing threat that the Houthis pose," British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced. "There's an ongoing threat that the Houthis pose."
This, for what it is worth, is Grant Shapps' excuse for the bombing.
— Phil Miller (@pmillerinfo) May 31, 2024
Retaliation for a cargo ship (Rubymar) that was hit more than 2 months ago, and avenging the deaths of Filipino and Vietnamese mariners (which apparently is now the RAF's remit)https://t.co/cfRm8mr26y
But instead of deterring the Houthis, the Shia rebel groups immediately announced a retaliatory operation against the US nuclear-powered carrier from which the US fighters were deployed, as we reported earlier.
However, the Pentagon denied that the carrier was attacked. Politico's Lara Seligman quoted an unnamed Department of Defense official who told her the Houthi's claim about a missile attack on the USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea is "false information — there was no hit on the Ike or any attacks in its vicinity."