Houthis vow to continue targeting Israel, US, UK ships until war on Gaza ends

Yemen’s Houthi group yesterday vowed to continue targeting Israel-linked ships until Tel Aviv stops the war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

A member of the group’s political bureau, Hizam Al-Assad, told Russia’s Sputnik agency that “the group will also continue to target American and British ships as a legitimate and guaranteed right to respond to the American-British attacks on Yemen.”

Al-Assad stressed that “the Yemeni military operations are linked to the continuation of the American-backed Israeli aggression and siege on our people in the Gaza Strip.”

In mid-March, the group said it had expanded its attacks against Israeli, American and British ships in the Red and Arabian Seas and the Gulf of Aden to the Indian Ocean.

The US Central Command (Centcom) announced yesterday that its forces had intercepted two drones launched from areas controlled by the group in Yemen a day earlier.

Centrom explained that “no casualties or damage were reported” by American ships, ships of the Washington-led Operation Prosperity Guardian, or commercial ships in the region, claiming the measures are being taken “to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters more protected and secure for American, coalition and commercial ships” in the region.

There was no immediate comment from the Houthis on the Centcom statement.

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