The Houthi militia in Yemen have been shelled by the USA and Great Britain

A day after air strikes against pro-Iranian militias in Iraq and Syria, US and British forces said they fired on dozens of targets of the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen on Saturday. The strikes hit “36 Houthi targets in 13 locations in Yemen in response to ongoing Houthi attacks on international and commercial shipping, as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea,” a joint statement said.

According to Houthi information, there was also an attack on the capital Sanaa

The US regional command, Central Command (Centcom), which is responsible for the Middle East, had previously announced that it had destroyed six missiles that were ready to be fired at ships. The Houthi television station Al-Masirah reported on the online service X (formerly Twitter) that the Yemeni capital Sanaa had also been attacked.

Since mid-November, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have attacked numerous ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden that they accuse of having ties to Israel. The militia sees itself as part of the self-proclaimed “Axis of Resistance” directed against Israel, to which the radical Islamic Hamas in the Gaza Strip also belongs. In response to the attacks, the US and Britain attacked Houthi positions in Yemen.

The shipping route from the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden to the Indian Ocean is an extremely important route for world trade and passes directly by Yemen.

Because of the Houthi attacks on container ships, numerous shipping companies are now avoiding sailing through the Red Sea, which leads to delays and increased freight costs due to the long detours.