The United States Army and the Hutí Militia de Yemen have maintained a new exchange of blows on Monday morning while the number of deaths in Washington’s bombings on the Arab country already amounts to more than 50. The tension escalation between the parties, unleashed due to Israel’s decision to block humanitarian aid to Gaza in early March, threatens to sink into a strong Instability the Red Sea, a key artery for global maritime trade.
So far, US attacks in Yemen – who began on Saturday with a fifty bombing – have already caused 53 dead – five of them, children – and dozens of injured, according to the last count offered on Monday by the health authorities of the Hutí government, a militia that supports Iran and that controls 30% of the territory of Yemen (which concentrates 70% of the population).
The military spokesman of the Hutis, Yahya Sarea, declared Monday in a statement that the group had launched – for the second time in 24 hours – an attack of several hours with drones and ballistic and cruise missiles against an American aircraft carrier in the Red Sea. He also claimed to have frustrated an American attack against his positions.
The central command of the United States was limited to informing that it had continued with the operations initiated on Saturday against the Hutis. Without confirming, yes, the response of the militia.
The cross attacks on Monday have occurred only a few hours after another similar fire exchange. On Sunday afternoon, Sarea assured that the hutis had carried out a first attack against the same US aircraft carrier. The fighters then demolished 11 drones thrown by the Hutis before they approached their target, according to an official source to the Reuters agency, which also said that they had only detected a Hutí missile that ended up falling off the Yemeni coast.
The weekend attacks, which already constituted the largest American military operation in the Middle East from the return to the White House of Donald Trump, hit above all a neighborhood of the north of the capital of Yemen, Saná, where high hutis commanders are housed, and the Saada region, where the movement was founded. Washington has claimed to have killed several huti leaders in this offensive, an extreme that the militia has not confirmed.
The new climb between the United States and the Hutis began after the Yemeni group announced last Tuesday that would resume its attacks against Israeli ships in the strategic Red Sea and in the Gulf of Adén in response to the blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza by Israel in early March. The movement had interrupted its attacks in the Red Sea – where it is estimated to sail between 12% and 15% of the global maritime trade and that it is essential for the transfer of fossil fuels – after the entry into force of the High Fire Agreement between Israel and Hamas, and did not perform any while it was fulfilled. In his Monday statement, Sarea insisted that they will continue to block the passage of Israeli ships in the area until the strip blocking ends.
