AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: The US military has destroyed a number of Houthi drones, remote-controlled boats and ballistic missiles aimed at ships in international trade channels.
The US Central Command said in a statement on Tuesday morning Yemeni time that its forces destroyed three drones launched by the Houthis from Yemen over the Gulf of Aden, as well as another drone in Yemeni territory controlled by the Houthis. The US military also destroyed a drone boat, a drone and an anti-ship ballistic missile launched by the Houthis in the Red Sea before they could reach their intended targets along the critical sea route.
“These weapons posed a clear and imminent threat to U.S. and coalition forces and commercial vessels in the region. This reckless and dangerous behavior by the Iran-backed Houthis continues to threaten regional stability and security,” the U.S. Central Command statement said.
In Sanaa on Tuesday, the Houthis did not claim responsibility for new attacks on ships in the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden, as they regularly do hours or days after attacking ships. On Saturday, the Houthis continued a two-week pause in their anti-shipping campaign by firing missiles at a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden. The Liberian-flagged freighter Groton was attacked with two missiles on Saturday afternoon while sailing east of Aden, Yemen's southern port city, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center.
In a statement by the militia's military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, the Houthis claimed that the Groton was the target of the attack because the ship's parent company had violated its ban on calling at Israeli ports.
The Houthis' attacks on ships have ceased since July 20, when Israeli jets struck oil storage facilities and other targets in Hodeidah, a Houthis-held city in western Yemen. Despite their repeated threats to retaliate for Israeli bombings, the Houthis have not claimed responsibility for any further attacks on Israel or its ships in the past two weeks.
Since November, the Houthis have hijacked one merchant ship, sunk two others and launched dozens of missile, drone and drone boat attacks on merchant and warships in international shipping lanes off the coast of Yemen, claiming they were acting in solidarity with the Palestinian people against Israel's war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Rashad Al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen's Presidential Council, said on Monday that his government had reversed its harsh economic measures against Sanaa's banks to promote “the interests of the people.”
In a surprise move that sparked outrage in Yemen, the Yemeni government agreed to a UN-brokered deal with the Houthis that would lift sanctions on banks in Sanaa and allow Yemenia Airways, the country's national airline, to expand its flights from the Houthis-controlled airport in Sanaa to Jordan, Egypt and India, reversing earlier strong pledges to punish banks in Sanaa that refuse to move their headquarters to the government-controlled interim capital of Aden.
“We are in an economic struggle and the Presidential Council has decided with full conviction that these decisions may need to be reversed in order to give priority to the interests of the Yemeni people over all other interests,” Al-Alimi said in an interview with state broadcaster Hadhramaut.
The Yemeni leader also said that his government had accepted the UN-brokered peace plan (the so-called Roadmap) to end the war in Yemen. He praised the Saudi-led coalition to restore legitimacy in Yemen for its support of the Yemeni government and its allied forces in liberating Yemeni areas from the Houthis.
“We have agreed to the roadmap and now the ball is in the court of the Houthis, who continue to oppose peace,” he said, adding: “Without Operation Decisive Storm and the resistance and sacrifices of the Yemenis, the militia would already control all of Yemen.”
