Houthi rebels say at least 16 killed and 42 others wounded in joint US-British airstrikes in Yemen

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Joint Anglo-American airstrikes target Yemen Houthi rebels At least 16 people were killed and 42 others injured, rebels said Friday, the highest publicly acknowledged death toll following multiple rounds of strikes following rebel attacks on shipping.

Three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe an attack then underway, described the strikes Thursday as hitting a wide range of underground facilities, missile launchers, command and control sites, a Houthi ship and other facilities. They called it a response to a recent surge in attacks by the A militia supported by Iran on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden because of the war between Israel and Hamas.

The U.S. F/A-18 fighter jets involved in the strikes took off from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Red Sea, officials said. Other US warships in the region also participated.

But the Houthis focused Friday morning on a strike they said hit a building housing Hodeida Radio and civilian homes in the Red Sea port city. Their satellite news channel Al Masirah broadcast images of a bloodied man being carried down the stairs and others in hospital, receiving help. He specifies that all the deaths and almost all the injured in the strikes came from there.

The Houthis described all those killed and injured in Hodeida as civilians, which The Associated Press could not immediately confirm. The rebel force that has controlled Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014 includes fighters who often do not wear uniform.

Other strikes hit outside Sanaa, near its airport, as well as communications equipment in Taiz, the channel said. Little other information was released about these sites – likely indicating that Houthi military sites had been struck. One person was injured in Sanaa.

“We confirm this brutal aggression against Yemen as punishment for its stance in favor of Gaza, in favor of Israel in continuing its crimes of genocide against the wounded, besieged and unshakable Gaza Strip,” the spokesperson said. – Houthi spokesperson, Mohammed Abdulsalam, on

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi official, threatened the United States and the United Kingdom with further reprisals.

“We will face escalation after escalation,” he wrote on X.

Yemen’s military spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree gave casualty figures, then claimed, without providing any evidence, that rebels had targeted the Eisenhower in response with drones and ballistic missiles. Another U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said the carrier was fine.

In the United Kingdom, the country’s Ministry of Defense said Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s carried out strikes both on Hodeida and further south at Ghulayfiqah. It described its targets as “buildings identified as housing drone ground control facilities and providing storage for ultra-long-range drones, as well as surface-to-air weapons.”

“These strikes were carried out in self-defense against the ongoing threat posed by the Houthis,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said. “The Houthis pose a permanent threat. »

The United States and the United Kingdom have launched strikes against the Houthis since January, and the United States has also carried out its own regularly since then. Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the secret supreme leader of the Houthis, gave an overall death toll from the strikes so far of 40 people killed and 35 others injured. At the time, he did not propose a distribution between civilian victims and those of combatants.

The Houthis have stepped up attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding that Israel end the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians there. THE the war began after the militants led by Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages.

THE Houthis launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, has killed three sailors, seized one ship and sunk another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. This week they attacked a ship carrying grain to Iranthe main benefactor of the rebels.

Wednesday, another American drone MQ-9 Reaper apparently crashed in Yemen, with the Houthis claiming to have fired a surface-to-air missile at it. The US Air Force has not reported any planes missing, leading to speculation that the drone may have been flown by the CIA. As many as three may have been lost in May alone.

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Lolita C. Baldor reported from Washington.