US and UK forces shoot down Houthi missiles: According to the US military, this was the group’s 26th attack on Yemen since November 19, however, there were no injuries or property damages recorded.

According to the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM), the Houthi rebels from Yemen launched eighteen drones over the southern Red Sea. This was the armed group’s 26th attack against international trade channels in the preceding seven weeks.

According to CENTCOM, two anti-ship ballistic and one anti-ship cruise missile were also shot down in tandem with British forces.

“Iranian-backed Huthis launched a complex attack of Iranian-designed one-way attack UAVs… anti-ship cruise missiles, and an anti-ship ballistic missile from Huthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Southern Red Sea,” the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Houthis have carried out 26 attacks on Red Sea commercial lanes since they took control of the Galaxy Leader, a cargo carrier that was sailing from Turkey to India, on November 19.

The organization associated with Iran claims that it initiated the strikes as payback for Israel’s Gaza battle.

According to CENTCOM, the mission involved fighter planes from the Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier and four destroyers, one of which was from the United Kingdom.

The US formed an international marine alliance last month in response to the attacks, which have caused some shipping corporations to take the longer sea route around southern Africa and avoid the Red Sea entirely.

According to their declaration, the Houthis will not abate until Israel terminates the fighting in Gaza. While Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander of US naval forces in the Middle East, said the Houthis had launched an explosive-laden sea drone into shipping lanes last week—the first time they had used such a weapon in the current conflict—CENTCOM reported that US forces shot down a drone launched from Yemen over the weekend.

The Houthis claim to be targeting ships with ties to Israel, but Cooper claimed there are ties to attacked ships in dozens of other nations.

The Galaxy Leader was being operated by the Japanese shipping line NYK at the time of its hijacking. Most of its 25-person multinational crew was from the Philippines, even though the ship was eventually owned by a company connected to an Israeli tycoon. No obvious connections to Israel have been made by other vessels.

The US-sponsored draft resolution denouncing the attacks on trade ships in the Red Sea and calling for an immediate cessation of such activities, along with the release of the Galaxy Leader and its crew, will be submitted to a vote by the UN Security Council in New York on January 10.

At a security council briefing last week, Japan’s UN envoy Yamazaki Kazuyuki stated that his country was “outraged by the armed seizure and continued holding” of the Galaxy Leader and her crew.

“We firmly demand the immediate and unconditional release of the Galaxy Leader and its crew, as we see no justification for tolerating such an injustice,” he declared.

On October 7, armed group Hamas carried out a surprise cross-border raid that resulted in the deaths of 1,139 individuals in Israel, sparking the start of the Gaza War.

From the time Israel launched its attack on Gaza hours later, at least 23,210 people have perished there.

SOURCE: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/10/us-uk-forces-shoot-down-21-drones-and-missiles-fired-by-houthis