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The US and the UK have carried out military strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels, raising fears of a broader escalation of the conflict in the region.
US President Joe Biden said he ordered the strikes in response to “unprecedented” attacks by the Yemen-based militants on commercial ships in the Red Sea. Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands also supported the operation.
“These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes,” Biden said.
“I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.”
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the Houthi attacks were disrupting trade, driving up commodity prices and exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
“Despite the repeated warnings from the international community, the Houthis have continued to carry out attacks in the Red Sea, including against UK and US warships just this week. This cannot stand,” Sunak said in a statement announcing strikes by the Royal Air Force.
The UK’s navy would continue to patrol the Red Sea as part of a multinational operation, he added.
A US administration official said the strikes had targeted Houthi missile, radar and drone capabilities. “As of right now, we have not seen any direct retaliatory action towards our US or other coalition members in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab or Gulf of Aden. We remain prepared of course to defend ourselves,” a senior US military official said.
The Houthis, who control northern Yemen, have become one of the most active factions in Tehran’s so-called Axis of Resistance since the war between Israel and Hamas, which is also supported by Iran, erupted on October 7.
Although Biden has tried to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from metastasising into a regional conflict, the continuing attacks by Houthi militia have forced the White House to recalculate.
A senior Biden administration official said: “The Houthis claim their attacks on military and civilian vessels are somehow tied to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. That is completely baseless and illegitimate.”
“We do hold Iran responsible for the role that they have played with the Houthis and with the other groups in the region that have conducted attacks against US forces and made them aware of that,” the official said.
The US and UK strikes came after Iranian forces on Thursday seized an oil tanker off the coast of Oman, and Houthi forces fired an anti-ship missile from Yemen into international shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden.
US Central Command said it was the 27th attack by the Houthis on international shipping in the past two months.
Nearly 15 per cent of global sea trade passes through the Red Sea, including 8 per cent of grain trade, 12 per cent of seaborne oil and 8 per cent of seaborne liquefied natural gas. Many oil tankers and container ships are avoiding the Red Sea route and the Suez Canal, opting instead for a longer — and more costly — voyage around Africa.
Crude oil prices rose after the strikes, with international benchmark Brent rising almost 2 per cent to $78.86 a barrel as trading reopened on Friday in Asia, extending gains from the previous session.
Washington has sent hundreds more troops to the Middle East since the start of Israel’s conflict with Hamas in October, and has struck Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for attacks on US bases.
Saudi Arabia, which led an Arab coalition that intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 to fight the Houthis, called for “restraint” and to avoid an escalation. A fragile truce has been in place since 2022 and the kingdom has been holding peace talks with the rebels in an effort to exit the war.
During the war in Yemen, the Houthis fired hundreds of rockets and drones into Saudi Arabia, targeting airports, oil facilities and other infrastructure. The rebels also launched missile and drone attacks against the United Arab Emirates, the main partner in the Saudi-led coalition, two years ago.
“While the kingdom emphasises the importance of maintaining the security and stability of the Red Sea region, as the freedom of navigation in it is an international demand due to its impact on the interests of the entire world, it calls for restraint and avoiding escalation in light of the events the region is witnessing,” the Saudi foreign minister said in a statement.
Yemeni analysts have warned that strikes against the Houthis are unlikely to deter the rebels, a traditionally pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel and anti-US Islamist movement that has endured years of war against the Saudi-led coalition.
In a video posted on X, Houthi commander Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi said: “The response to any American attack will not only be at the level of the operation that was recently carried out with more than 24 drones and several missiles, but it will be greater than that.”
Additional reporting by Andrew England in Dubai and David Sheppard in London
