Houthis claim missile attack on US Navy aircraft carrier in the Red Sea

Al Jazeera and Reuters reported this latest development in the Red Sea crisis. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree announced the attack on the US carrier on Friday, reported Al Jazeera. Before the attack on the carrier, the Houthis had claimed that the US and UK’s attacks on the Hodeidah province on Thursday had killed at least 16 people.

The impact of Thursday’s attacks was announced on a Houthi-controlled channel, Al Masirah television. At least 42 people were reportedly injured in the American and British attacks.

Warning that the group would “meet escalation with escalation”, Houthi official Mohammed al-Bukhaiti said on X: “The American-British aggression will not prevent us from continuing our military operations in support of Palestine.”

Regarding Thursday’s attacks, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on X that its forces, alongside UK armed forces, had “conducted strikes against 13 Houthi targets in Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen in self-defence”.

For its part, the British Ministry of Defence said that Royal Air Force aircraft had conducted attacks on Hodeidah and further south in Ghulayfiqah. It described the targets as “buildings identified as housing drone ground control facilities and providing storage for very long-range drones, as well as surface-to-air weapons”.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that Thursday’s military action was a form of “self-defence in the face of an ongoing threat that the Houthis pose”.

The Yemen-based Houthi rebels have been targeting ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters since November over the Israel-Hamas war. As a result, shipping costs have jumped and consignments are taking longer to reach Europe and the US.