Iran-Backed Houthis: ‘We Are Now in Direct Conflict With US & UK’
On Thursday Houthi chief Abdul-Malik al-Houthi declared that “we are now in direct confrontation with the US and UK” in the Red Sea, following the overnight US coalition airstrikes on Yemen, which constitute the fourth round of counter-Houthi attacks.
The Houthis this week have said they will attack all Israeli and US targets in response to the massacre of Palestinians happening in the Gaza Strip. “Anyone attempting to hinder us from doing so will fail,” a Houthi official said Monday.
As we noted earlier, the Houthis latest attack on Red Sea commercial vessels came on the very day that the Biden administration relisted the group as a global terror organization. Thus it’s clear that with each escalatory move of Washington, the Houthis express their defiance, and have only become more committed to wreaking havoc on global shipping in the vital Red Sea waterway.
Initially, the Houthis declared that either Israeli vessels or ships headed to Israeli ports would be targeted, but the scope of their targeting has expanded. “The ship doesn’t necessarily have to be heading to Israel for us to target it, it is enough for it to be American,” Nasruddin Amer, a Houthi spokesman.
