13 JAN 2024 · The US carried out further strikes against Houthi locations in Yemen, according to a US official, one day after launching a coordinated multi-nation attack on nearly 30 Houthi positions.
The additional strikes carried out Friday night (Eastern Time) were much smaller in scope than the previous night. They targeted a radar facility used by the Houthis, the official said.
The Houthis had fired at least one anti-ship ballistic missile towards a commercial vessel earlier Friday.
On Thursday, the US and UK struck 28 separate Houthi sites in an attempt to disrupt their ability to fire upon international shipping lanes in the Red Sea. The two countries were also backed by Canada, Australia, Bahrain, and the Netherlands.
The latest strike was carried out unilaterally by the United States, the official said.
The US had threatened the possibility of additional military action if the Houthis continued to launch drone and missile attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
“We will make sure we respond to the Houthis if they continue this outrageous behavior along with our allies,” US President Joe Biden said Friday while in Pennsylvania.
But after the US-led strikes, the Iran-backed rebel group launched another anti-ship ballistic missile towards a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Aden, south of Yemen.
The new strikes also come after the White House said it was trying to avoid an escalation.
“Everything we're doing, everything we're trying to do is to prevent any further escalation,” John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council, told CNN Friday.
The set of US-led strikes on Thursday evening targeted radar facilities and command and control nodes, as well as facilities used for the storage and launch of drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles. These are the primary weapons the Houthis have used to target commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The attacks killed five people and wounded six more, according to a spokesman for the Houthi military.
The Houthis vowed that their forces would respond to the attack, calling US and UK assets “legitimate targets
Martin Griffiths, the man in charge of the UN’s relief operations in Gaza, has painted a dire picture of conditions in the strip, saying his colleagues have witnessed "scenes of utter horror."
"Corpses left lying in the road. People with evident signs of starvation stopping trucks in search of anything they can get to survive," Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told members of the UN Security Council on Friday.
Griffiths said many people no longer had homes to return to, with shelters in the enclave housing far more people than they could cope with.
Food and water was running out and the risk of famine was growing by the day, he added.
The health system, he said, was "in a state of collapse," where women were unable to give birth safely, children could not get vaccinated, infectious diseases were on the rise and people had been seeking shelter in hospital yards.
In a stinging criticism, Griffiths said his team's efforts to send humanitarian convoys to the north have been met with delays and denials amid impossible conditions, with the safety of aid workers being put in danger.
"Orders for evacuation are unrelenting. As ground operations move southwards, aerial bombardments have intensified in areas where civilians were told to relocate for their safety," Griffiths said of Israel's evacuation policies.
"There is no safe place in Gaza. Dignified human life is a near impossibility," he said.
But the UN humanitarian chief also urged people not to forget "the 1,200 people killed, thousands injured, and hundreds taken in the brutal attack by Hamas and other armed groups on Israel on October 7, and the accounts of abhorrent sexual violence."
"What we have seen since October 7 is a stain on our collective conscience. Unless we act, it will become an indelible mark on our humanity," Griffiths said.