US-UK joint terror attack in Sana'a, Yemen, on May 30, 2024. Photo: Getty Images.
Washington and London launched an illegal war on Yemen in January in a failed bid to protect Israeli trade interests.
At least 16 people were killed and 30 injured on 30 May following intense air raids by US and UK warplanes across several Yemeni provinces that destroyed civilian infrastructure.
According to the Yemeni Health Ministry, the death toll is expected to rise as many of those injured remain in critical condition.
Local media reports say the western jets conducted 13 air raids in total, with six of those hitting the capital, Sanaa, including near the country’s main airport and several residential neighborhoods.
The attacks also hit telecommunication infrastructure in Hodeidah and Taiz provinces and the Port of Saif.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) released a statement early on Friday saying its forces “alongside UK Armed Forces conducted strikes against 13 Houthi targets” in areas controlled by the Ansarallah resistance group, which is where most Yemenis live.
The British Defense Ministry said that its forces “participated in a joint operation with US forces against Houthi military facilities to degrade their ability to persist with their attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.”
“As ever, the utmost care was taken in planning the strikes to minimize any risk to civilians or non-military infrastructure,” London claims in its statement.
Health officials in Sanaa condemned the airstrikes, saying in a statement that “the deliberate and unlawful killings carried out by the American–British–Israeli [alliance] against civilians constitute war crimes [and] a grave violation of the rules of international humanitarian law.”
Officials in Sanaa also stressed that the western aggression “confirms the great impact of the heroic operations carried out by the Yemeni armed forces against American, British, and Israeli targets” in the Red Sea and beyond.
US and UK jets launched an illegal war on Yemen in January in a failed attempt to deter the country’s military operations in support of Palestine.
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The latest round of attacks came after the Yemeni armed forces announced they downed a sixth US MQ-9 Reaper drone worth $30 million since November. It also follows near-daily attacks on Israeli-linked vessels and western warships in nearby sea routes.
Officials in Sanaa have repeatedly stated that they will not stop their attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza and a lifting of the Israeli siege.
“Our operations at sea are consistent with what is demanded by most countries in the world, who are demanding an end to the aggression and the lifting of the siege on Gaza, while the Americans and the British stand in the shameful position that is contrary to what the world is calling for, and therefore they have no right to talk about the law at all,” Nasr al-Din Amer, the deputy head of Ansarallah’s media authority, told Mondoweiss earlier this week.
Two western naval missions – the US-led Operation Prosperity Guardian and the EU Operation Aspides – have failed to stop the Yemeni operations, as officials said Sanaa has shown “uninhibited violence that was quite surprising and very significant.”
“We favor a diplomatic solution; we know that there is no military solution,” US Special Envoy for Yemen Timothy Lenderking said in April, candidly acknowledging the failure of what US military commanders called Washington’s largest naval battle since WWII.
Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation, has been the target of a nine-year war led by Saudi Arabia with the full support of NATO, which killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced millions. A ceasefire has held relatively well since April 2022, but new US sanctions are now blocking the implementation of a lasting peace deal.
