Aerial footage shows moment RAF Typhoon strikes Yemen military target
US officials have issued a warning over the missile capability of the Houthi militia despite major airstrikes against nearly 30 locations on Thursday and Friday.
The UK joined the US-led operation in hitting more than 60 missile and drone targets in response to the group targeting ships in the Red Sea.
But despite around 90 per cent of the targets being hit, two US officials warned on Sunday that the group retained about three-quarters of its ability to fire missiles and drones at vessels using the narrow strip of water.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the New York Times reported that the two officials said only about 20 to 30 percent of the Houthis’ offensive capability had been destroyed.
They said the difficulty was that much of the offensive weapons were on mobile platforms and could be moved or hidden.
It comes as the Lord Cameron warned Britain could strike Houthi targets again if the rebel group continued to attack ship in the Red Sea.
Suggesting that the Iran-linked militants could force up prices in Britain, he said that not acting would be accepting that Houthi attacks could “virtually shut a vital sea lane with relative impunity”.
Hezbollah sees all maritime navigation in danger after US strikes on Yemen
The Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Sunday that the United States was wrong if it thought the Houthis of Yemen would stop confronting Israel in the Red Sea, saying U.S. actions there had endangered all maritime navigation.
Describing U.S. and British strikes on Yemen as an act of stupidity, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the Houthis would continue targeting ships belonging to Israel and going to its ports.
“The more dangerous thing is what the Americans did in the Red Sea will harm all maritime navigation, even the ships that are not going to Palestine, even the ships which are not Israeli, even the ships that have nothing to do with the matter, because the sea has become a theatre of fighting, missiles, drones and war ships,” he said.
“Security has been disrupted.”
John Rentoul: Will war in the Middle East cast a shadow over a Starmer government?
The shadow cabinet is more deeply divided than it appears. Labour is still subject to less media scrutiny than the Conservatives, despite the widespread assumption that Keir Starmer will become prime minister this year.
Most Labour MPs are also more disciplined than most Tory MPs because they can feel election victory within their grasp, whereas the Tories are either fed up or have given up, and so are happier to be rude about each other in private and in public.
As ever in politics, Labour’s divisions are a mixture of the personal and the ideological, and foreign policy is one of the hidden fractures threatening the foundations of an incoming government.
Why are Britain and US attacking Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels?
The attacks came after the Houthis launched their largest attack on Red Sea shipping, one of 27 such assaults since 19 November.
Officials said that 21 missiles and drones were fired at warships and commercial vessels near the Bab al-Mandab Strait earlier this week, the southern bottleneck of the Red Sea, with US and UK warships blowing them out of the sky.
Here is what we know so far:
Germany to take part in EU Red Sea naval mission – legislator
Germany is expected to participate in a European Union naval mission to protect shipping in the Red Sea that EU foreign ministers will approve this month, the head of the German parliamentary defence committee said.
Speaking at her party’s reception for the new year on Sunday, Maria-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann said the aim of the mission would be for EU frigates to protect commercial vessels passing through the strait.
The approaches to the Suez Canal, one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, have been all but paralysed by attacks on passing vessels by Iran-backed Houthi forces on the Yemen coast.
“This is an attack on free trade and has to be countered,” Strack-Zimmermann said. Newspaper Welt am Sonntag earlier reported that the German frigate Hessen would set sail for the Red Sea on Feb. 1.
Parliament must approve any foreign deployment of Germany’s armed forces.
RAF strikes not an escalation of war in the Middle East, Lord Cameron insists
Lord Cameron has denied RAF strikes in Yemen will escalate the picture in the Middle East, as he warned the world faces a period of great peril.
The Foreign Secretary insisted it was the Houthi rebels who had taken steps to escalate conflict in the region with their attacks on container ships passing through the Red Sea.
The militant group, which backs Hamas, claims they have targeted ships with links to Israel.
The Houthis’ actions have posed a threat to the flow of global trade, disrupting merchant vessels from passing through the sea to the Suez Canal, a route which serves 15% of world shipping.
The Foreign Secretary denied that the UK had escalated the situation by taking part in US-led air strikes on Houthi military facilities across Yemen overnight on Thursday.
He had previously warned the RAF could join the USA in further strikes against the Houthis in order to deter their attacks.
“The escalation has been caused by the Houthis. I mean the point is since November 19, you have had these 26 attacks”, Lord Cameron told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
He added: “There have been more of them, they have been getting worse, and you know, not acting is also a policy, it is a policy that doesn’t work.”
Mapped: How the US and UK attacks on Houthi rebels took place and what weapons were used?
Huge explosions were seen in Yemeni cities including Sana’a and Hodeidah in the early hours of Friday, with the US military saying 60 strikes were launched against 16 sites linked to the Houthis’ military operations.
Below, The Independent looks at how the attacks unfolded and what weapons were used in the strikes.
Watch in full: Editor-in-chief Geordie Greig talks Yemen and political Traitors
Editor-in-chief of The Independent, Geordie Greig, appeared on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg this morning (14 January), to discuss David Cameron’s return to politics, as well as the ongoing situation in Yemen. Mr Greig described the now-foreign secretary as a “Rolls-Royce” for his “smooth” and “persuasive” energy in government, but acknowledged that there would be “bumps in the road”. When it came to Keir Starmer, Mr Greig analysed his “Blair-lite” strategy for Labour ahead of the general election. “He doesn’t have to do very much, he doesn’t have to over-inspire”, he said of the Labour leader.
Starmer weakens pledges on military action votes and Saudi arms sales
Sir Keir Starmer has watered down promises to introduce a law giving MPs a vote before military intervention and to stop selling weapons to Saudi Arabia.
The Labour leader insisted on Sunday that there is “no inconsistency” between his previous promise to give the Commons a say before authorising action and his support for strikes against Houthis.
But his comments marked another change to his past pledges which will further raise concerns on the left and leave him open to Conservative accusations of “flip-flopping”.
Geordie Greig discusses return of ‘Rolls Royce’ David Cameron to UK politics
The Independent’s editor-in-chief Geordie Greig described David Cameron as a ‘Rolls Royce’ returning to politics during a new interview on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg this morning (14 January). “He’s smooth, he’s persuasive, he powers along”, Mr Greig noted, adding that there were ‘definitely bumps in the road’ – referring to the foreign secretary’s refusal to say how much he was paid by Greensill Capital. “Such a flatterer!”, Kuenssberg responded to the analogy, however, Mr Greig insisted we’d “seen it all before”. David Cameron also appeared on the show, as well as Labour leader, Keir Starmer.
Keir Starmer: ‘Doing nothing in Yemen was not an appropriate response’
Sir Keir Starmer has backed Lord Cameron’s claim that “doing nothing” in response to Houthi attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea was not an option.
“They were ramping up and escalating… sitting back and doing nothing in that situation is not an appropriate response,” the Labour leader said.
He went on to say he does not want to “ramp up the rhetoric” but that he has “serious concerns” about Iran, which backs the Houthi rebels.
And he repeatedly called for Rishi Sunak to make a statement in parliament explaining the UK and US strikes on Monday.
