The United States announced that it had carried out a new strike on Monday February 5 against the equipment of the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The military carried out “a self-defense strike against two explosive-laden naval surface drones” around 3:30 p.m. local time, the US military’s Middle East Command (Centcom) said on the X social network.
US forces “identified” these small unmanned vessels in “Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen” and deemed them to pose “an imminent threat to US naval vessels and merchant vessels”, he said. -he added, repeating the words generally used after each keystroke.
American forces have increased operations in Yemen and off the coast of this war-torn country, saying they are acting to protect navigation in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden from attacks by the Houthis, who say they are thus supporting the besieged and bombarded Palestinians in Gaza. by Israel for almost four months.
Antony Blinken on a visit to the Middle East
On Sunday, American forces announced that they had carried out airstrikes against five missiles in Yemen, the day after a wave of American-British air raids in the country in response to attacks by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
Supported by Iran, the bane of the United States, the Houthi rebels control a large part of Yemen after nearly a decade of war against the Yemeni government. While the Houthis say they are attacking ships linked according to them to Israel, of which the United States is the main military supporter, other pro-Iran armed groups have increased attacks in recent weeks against American interests in the region. .
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East to try to achieve a truce in the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which is in the grip of a major humanitarian crisis. He began this fifth regional tour in Saudi Arabia on Monday since the start of the conflict, which will take him on Tuesday to Egypt and Qatar, two mediator countries alongside Washington, before going to Israel and the occupied West Bank.