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A military coalition led by the United States and the United Kingdom on Saturday evening he accomplished a new series of attacks in Yemen against various sites of the Houthi rebels, an armed Shiite group that controls the north-west of the country and is allied with Iran.
According to a statement released by the coalition, the strikes hit 36 targets at 13 sites in northern Yemen, including weapons and ammunition depots and radar, missile and air defense systems. The operation was supported by Australia, Bahrain, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand.
It was the second largest attack after that of last January 11, when more than 60 targets were hit in 16 different locations in Yemen. It was the first attack of its kind: since then the United States and the United Kingdom have carried out several similar operations, including a rather large one on January 22nd.
– Listen to the podcast: Globo – What do these Houthis want, with Luca Nevola
The operations of the coalition of Western countries are to be understood as a response against the attacks that the Houthis have been carrying out for months against commercial ships transiting the Red Sea: the group claims that they are a retaliation for the Israeli invasion of Gaza and for the war against Hamas, a Sunni group supported by Iran.
The Houthis initially claimed to only target Israeli-linked ships, but in reality they mainly targeted British or US vessels. Second an analysis Of BBC Newsbetween the end of November and the beginning of February the group hit 28 ships, of which seven were connected in some way to Israel.
Houthi attacks are causing much damage and disruption to international trade, forcing ships to avoid transiting the Red Sea and take a much longer route, which circumnavigates Africa and requires up to two weeks more travel. The consequences so far have been significant and have caused an increase in the prices of many goods.
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With their military responses, the United States and the United Kingdom do not intend to destroy the Houthis, but rather to weaken their military capabilities and above all to convince them to stop the continuous attacks on ships. At the same time, the United States wants to avoid the start of a new conflict in the Middle East, where the situation is already very precarious.
For now, however, it seems that this strategy is not working, given that Houthi attacks have been going on more or less regularly since last November and the group continues to repeat that it has no intention of stopping. In response to the latest US and British attacks on Saturday, a Houthi spokesperson he said that military operations will continue until Israel stops its “aggression against Gaza”, and therefore until a ceasefire is reached in the Strip.
Second several analysts and Middle East experts, it is unlikely that the United States strategy will have concrete consequences: «I do not see how these air strikes can help the United States achieve its objectives and avoid a escalation in the area”, he said al New York Times Stacey Philbrick Yadav, an expert scholar of the region.
Saturday’s attacks follow a series of airstrikes carried out by the United States on Friday against various sites in Iraq and Syria, controlled by militias affiliated with Iran or directly by the Revolutionary Guards, the country’s top military force. On January 28, an Iranian-affiliated militia claimed responsibility for an attack on a military base in Jordan that killed three US soldiers.
– Read also: The first US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria