Yemen's Huthis claim missiles launched toward Israel

Yemen's Huthis claim missiles launched toward Israel
by AFP Staff Writers
Sanaa (AFP) Feb 2, 2024

Yemeni Huthi rebels claimed on Friday they had launched a barrage of missiles toward Israel, after the Israeli army said it had intercepted a missile over the Red Sea.

Huthi forces "carried out a military operation against specific targets of the Israeli enemy in the Umm al-Rashrash area, south of occupied Palestine, with a number of ballistic missiles," the group's military spokesman Yahya Saree said on X, formerly Twitter.

The Iran-backed Huthis warned they would launch further attacks at Israel "until the cessation of aggression and lifting of the blockade on the Gaza Strip".

The Israeli military had said earlier it had "successfully intercepted a surface-to-surface missile that approached Israeli territory in the area of the Red Sea".

The attack was the latest in a series of drone and missile strikes launched by the Huthis since the start of the Gaza war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas nearly four months ago.

The Huthis have also repeatedly targeted vessels in the Red Sea with strikes they say are in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is battling militant group Hamas.

The attacks have prompted some shipping companies to detour around southern Africa to avoid the Red Sea, a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of global maritime trade.

The US military on Thursday said it shot down a drone off Yemen and later destroyed an explosives-laden uncrewed surface vessel that threatened ships in the Red Sea.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) also said the Huthis launched two anti-ship missiles that were possibly aimed at a cargo ship in the Red Sea, but that the missiles did not hit the vessel.

Hamas says US strikes on Iraq, Syria 'pour oil on fire'
Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories (AFP) Feb 3, 2024 - Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday condemned overnight US strikes in Iraq and Syria, saying Washington had poured "oil on the fire" in the Middle East.

The US "bears responsibility for the consequences of this brutal aggression against both Iraq and Syria, which pour oil on the fire," the group said in a statement issued in English.

"We confirm that the region will not witness stability or peace except by stopping the Zionist (Israeli) aggression and the crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing against our people in the Gaza Strip."

The United States launched air strikes against Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq and Syria and promised more to come, in retaliation for a drone attack that killed three US soldiers in Jordan on Sunday.

The US military said it attacked a total of 85 targets at seven different sites in Syria and Iraq.

The strikes killed at least 23 pro-Iranian fighters in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said. In Iraq, they killed 16 people, including civilians, the Baghdad government said.

US and allied troops have been attacked more than 165 times in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since mid-October in a campaign waged by Iran-backed armed groups angered by US support for Israel in the war in Gaza.

The war broke out following Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

In response Israel launched a blistering air, land and sea offensive in Gaza that has killed at least 27,238 people, most of them women, children and adolescents, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.