Houthis Claim Attack On US Aircraft Carrier In Retaliation For Deadly Strikes

By Saeed Al-Batati

Yemen’s Houthi militia said on Friday that it fired a salvo of ballistic missiles toward the US aircraft carrier Eisenhower in the Red Sea in revenge for the US and UK airstrikes on Thursday, which it claims killed and injured 58 people.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said that 16 persons were killed and 41 injured in the last wave of US and UK missile attacks on the Red Sea province of Hodeidah alone on Thursday, which targeted Hodeidah Radio, a coast guard facility on Al-Saleef port.

Other US and UK strikes hit the capital Sanaa, Sanaa province, Houthi-controlled sections of Taiz province, and two mansions in Hodeidah owned by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and former Vice President Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmer, injuring another person.

“This is an obvious targeting of civilian targets, a flagrant breach of all international law, and a full-fledged war crime,” the Houthi spokesperson said in a televised statement.

In reprisal for the strikes, Sarea said that its navy and missile forces jointly fired a number of ballistic missiles at the US aircraft carrier Eisenhower in the Red Sea, pledging to continue striking ships in international seas in support of the Palestinian people.

People in the targeted Houthi locations, mostly in Hodeidah, described hearing enormous explosions and witnessing massive balls of flames pouring from the targets.

The Houthi military spokesperson’s statement came hours after the US Central Command said its forces, together with UK forces, carried out preemptive attacks against 13 Houthi targets in Yemen under their control on Thursday, without mentioning the areas targeted.

Also on Thursday, US Central Command troops destroyed eight drones launched from Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen over the Red Sea, according to the US military.

Since January, the US and UK have carried out dozens of strikes in Sanaa, Saada, Hodeidah, and other Houthi-controlled Yemeni provinces, targeting what the two countries say are missile and drone launchers, as well as explosive-laden drone boats preparing to launch at international shipping in the Red Sea.

On Thursday, Houthi leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said that his forces had attacked 129 ships in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, and, most recently, the Mediterranean, as well as shot down six US military MQ-9 Reaper drones since the start of their operations against ships in November and that they would cease attacks once Israel’s war in Gaza ended.