Houthis vow revenge after UK and US launch airstrikes on Yemen

Rishi Sunak warns more missile strikes could follow as Iran-backed rebels say action ‘won’t go unpunished’ – after allies hit 60 targets in ‘proportionate’ response to Red Sea attacks

Houthi rebels in Yemen have warned the West to expect bloody retaliation after a series of UK and US-led airstrikes against them, amid fears of dramatically escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Rishi Sunak said the action showed that the militants’ attacks on ships in the Red Sea could not be carried out with “impunity”, while foreign secretary Lord Cameron said they sent a “very clear message” to their backers, Iran.

British and American forces hit 60 targets in 16 locations in the early hours, taking out command centres and drone and missile sites. In response, the Houthis promised reprisals and said that UK and US interests were now “legitimate targets”.

It came as:

• Iran described the overnight strikes as a “clear violation of Yemen’s sovereignty”
• Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan accused the US and the UK of trying to turn the Red Sea into a “sea of blood”
• General Sir Richard Barrons, a former chief of joint operations who served in Afghanistan, said the West should expect a “defiant response”
• Experts warned the move had put the both the US and UK on “riskier terrain”
• A fresh missile attack against a vessel was reported on Friday evening, with British maritime security firm Ambrey saying Houthi militants mistakenly targeted a tanker carrying Russian oil

Rishi Sunak during a visit to Ukraine, hours after the overnight strikes in Yemen (AFP via Getty Images)

The Hamas-backing Houthis claim they are targeting vessels linked to Israel in one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, because of the war in Gaza. As the world waited for the Houthi response, a defiant Mr Sunak, speaking during a visit to Ukraine, did not rule out further military action in Yemen, saying attacks on ships “can’t be met without a response”.

Downing Street denied the UK was at war with the Iran-backed group and said the strikes, targeting military facilities used by rebels, had been proportionate and carried out in self-defence.

President Joe Biden, who green-lit the attacks on Tuesday, has also said he would not hesitate to take further action if necessary.

Houthi rebels said the strikes killed at least five people and wounded six, and would “not go unanswered and unpunished”. Turkey also criticised the US and the UK, accusing them of trying to turn the Red Sea into a “sea of blood”, while the strikes were also condemned by Russia.

At home, Labour leader Keir Starmer backed the government, but demanded a statement to MPs “at the first opportunity”.

However, a political row erupted over the PM’s failure to seek the approval of parliament for the strikes – despite briefing the Labour leader ahead of time and holding a late-night cabinet meeting.

People take to the streets of the Yemeni Red Sea city of Hudeida, to condemn the overnight attacks (AFP via Getty Images)

The Lib Dems’ foreign affairs spokesperson, Layla Moran, said it was “shameful” for Mr Sunak to bypass parliament. No 10 said MPs would not get a “retrospective” vote, but did not rule out further strikes.

Meanwhile, General Sir Richard Barrons said the UK must be prepared to attack Yemen again as he warned the West “should expect a defiant response, which will most likely include at least some further attacks to show the rebels are not defeated”. He added: “Things might then settle down.”

That view was echoed by former defence secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind who told The Independent he believed there would be further strikes.

“The Houthis will want to prove ‘we cannot be deterred’,” he said. “So I will be very surprised if there’s not at least one further incident. It might not even be immediate, it might be in a week’s time or 10 days. Or it might be in the next 48 hours. When it does happen there will be a further American strike. And then there won’t be any more after that, at least for some period of time.”

Former British military intelligence officer Philip Ingram warned the “critical” period was the next 12 to 48 hours, to see how the Houthis respond.

He said British military vessels could be “swarmed” by drones, adding that while he was “confident” there was the manpower to shoot them down, “it’s (still) hugely dangerous. And nothing is 100 per cent. That means there’s always a percentage chance that something will get through.”

And Major General Tim Cross, who served in Iraq, the Balkans and Northern Ireland, warned it would be a natural tactic for the Houthis to try to “swarm” a warship with drones.

An RAF Typhoon returning to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus after joining the US-led coalition conducting airstrikes against military targets in Yemen (PA Media)

“We know from experience in places like Ukraine that if you send enough drones then there are chances of a small number getting through – 90 per cent can be shot down, but the rest may get through,” he told The Independent. “A small drone wouldn’t sink a ship, but it can cause damage, and will be a great propaganda victory for the Houthis.”

But Lord West, the chief of UK naval staff from 2002 to 2006, played down the chances of a wider escalation with Iran. “I think the strikes will make Iran think, ‘Oh hang on – they do take it seriously’. I don’t believe it will escalate,” he said.

He warned, however, that Mr Sunak would have to be prepared to strike again if necessary. “What do we do if they [the Houthis] do the next attacks? Do we up the ante? That’s the next difficult decision. If they keep attacking innocent merchant ships and our warships then I think we will have to do something.”

Sophia Gaston, head of foreign policy at the think tank Policy Exchange, also warned of a wider conflict in the region following the strikes.

Houthi supporters rally after U.S. and Britain carry out strikes in Yemen (via Reuters)

She added that retaliation in the form of intensified attacks on ships in the Red Sea could push the US and UK into “areas that they’re not going to feel very comfortable with”.

“We are moving into a much riskier terrain because the US and the UK certainly do not want to be in a situation where we are required to engage beyond a limited targeted strike capacity and certainly not one that may invite the participation of other regional powers,” she said.

She added that the existence of so many proxies for different states, such as the Houthis and Hezbollah for Iran, “necessarily makes this a kind of tinderbox”. “And I think there are a lot of these players who believe that the stakes at the moment are becoming existential. So I think that always is a recipe for a higher risk of conflict.”

Backing Mr Sunak’s airstrikes, former prime minister Boris Johnson stressed that what happens in Yemen ‘affects us all’, with disruption to shipping routes adding to everyday costs in the west.

“The spate of Houthi attacks on shipping, if it continues, has the potential to do incalculable damage to the world economy — and to the UK,” he said in his Daily Mail column on Friday. “The madness of the Houthis will ultimately affect you — your mortgage, your cost of living; and we cannot allow them to continue as they are.”

Lord Ricketts, who served as the UK’s first national security adviser, warned that the conflict in the Red Sea was “already having a major disruptive effect on this big maritime artery which carries 20 per cent of all the world’s container traffic, as well as a lot of oil and gas exports”.

Huge explosions were seen in Yemeni cities in the early hours of Friday.

The Ministry of Defence said four Royal Air Force jets struck two Houthi facilities involved in their targeting of HMS Diamond and US Navy vessels on Tuesday.

One was a site at Bani and the other the Abbs airfield, used to launch drones and cruise missiles.

Dr Tobias Borck, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) think tank, said the threat of a wider regional war had existed since Hamas’s deadly 7 October attack on Israel.

“However, escalation can happen as a result of accidents and miscalculation, or as a simple compounding of risk, a normalisation of an extremely high level of violence,” he said.