The US military again bombed suspected Houthi military installations in Yemen this Saturday. Supported by Iran, Yemeni rebels have increased their attacks against commercial ships in the Red Sea.
The Americans had threatened the Houthis with new reprisals. They put them into action this Saturday. US Central Command said a “follow-up action” did take place in Yemen against a Houthi radar site. An operation led by the Navy destroyer USS Carney using Tomahawk land attack missiles.
On Friday, a first large-scale operation, this time carried out with the United Kingdom, had already affected 28 sites and more than 60 targets. These strikes reportedly left at least five dead.
U.S. military and White House officials have said they expect the Houthis to try to fight back.
These bombings are the consequence of the campaign of drone and missile attacks against commercial ships in the Red Sea, a highly strategic region through which 12% of world trade passes.
These new bombings come after the UN Secretary General on Friday urged all parties to “don’t make the situation even worse” .
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stressed at the same time that the Houthis, supported by Iran, must above all stop their attacks against commercial ships, in accordance with the recent Security Council resolution of the UN.
But this call for de-escalation has clearly not been heard.
The Houthi attacks, which began after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas. The Houthis say they support the Palestinians and promise to target ships bound for Israel.
Some Middle East analysts, however, believe that Western military intervention will not stop the Yemeni rebels, but will instead give them a good reason to continue, in line with their strong anti-Western ideology.
“Finally, they have an open front with the United States and therefore, there is no high price in this confrontation, even if it is a losing match. For the Houthis, it is Newton’s apple which fell and it accomplished a large part of their ideological fight against what they believe to be the big devil,” explains Farea al-Muslimi, a researcher in the Middle East and North Africa program at the Chatham House Think Tank.
The analyst says any direct “West versus Houthis” conflict is certainly a losing game for the Yemeni movement, but ultimately the losses will be greater for the international community, in the form of enormous resources spent on tracking the Houthis across Yemen.