Continued strikes The Houthis have launched numerous attacks on shipping in the waters around Yemen since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7 with Hamas’s bloody attack on Israel. The Houthi statement said the rebels were acting against “the oppression of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and within the response to the American-British aggression against our country”. US President Joe Biden on Thursday conceded the US counterstrikes had yet to deter the Houthi attacks, but added: “Are they going to continue? Yes.” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that US forces on Thursday had hit “a couple of anti-ship missiles that we had reason to believe were being prepared for imminent fire into the southern Red Sea”. Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said US Navy warplanes carried out the strikes, and that the air raids that began against the Houthis last week had been able to “degrade and severely disrupt and destroy a significant number of their capabilities”. Several major shipping firms have halted their traffic through the area because of the attacks. Russia on Thursday said the United States should halt its strikes against the Houthis to aid a diplomatic resolution to the attacks on merchant vessels. “The most important thing now is to stop the aggression against Yemen, because the more the Americans and the British bomb, the less willing the Houthis are to talk,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow. Denmark, meanwhile, said Thursday it would join the coalition behind the air strikes against the Houthis. The Scandinavian country, which has previously said it would send a frigate to the region, is home to shipping giant Maersk, which is among the firms to have rerouted ships away from the Red Sea.
Source link
