Britain and US launch airstrikes on Houthi targets

The Times, January 12, 2024

Event

Explosions were heard across Yemen late on Thursday night as British and US forces launched strikes on Houthi targets, after the Iranian-backed group ignored warnings to stop attacking ships in the Red Sea. Rishi Sunak, who had authorised the military action hours earlier and briefed ministers in an emergency cabinet meeting, said the situation could not be allowed to stand. He said the UK had taken

“limited, necessary and proportionate action in self-defence”.

President Biden said that Australia, Bahrain, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand and South Korea had also provided backing. Saba, the Yemeni press agency, reported attacks in the capital, Sanaa.

“These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea … These attacks have endangered US personnel, civilian mariners, and our partners, jeopardised trade, and threatened freedom of navigation,”

President Biden said.

Comment

The war between Israel and Hamas has escalated once again. Now it has spread to a direct conflict between the US/UK and the Houthis based in Yemen. The Houthis have said they are attacking ships in the Red Sea in support of the Palestinians and will only stop when Israel stops its war. The Houthis have been armed with sophisticated missiles and weapons from Iran. In Joel 3 we read of this situation. God speaks of the final conflict over Israel in this chapter. He asks (almost sarcastically)

“what have you to do with me O Tyre and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine?”

Tyre = Hezbollah and coasts of Palestine = Hamas in Gaza. But then we read in verse 8 that these people will be sold to the Sabeans – a people far off. Their kingdom was called Saba in Yemen!

Bible quote

Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon [Hezbollah], and all the coasts of Palestine? [Hamas] will ye render me a recompence? ….I return your recompence upon your own head;  And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans [Yemen], to a people far off: for the LORD hath spoken it. (Joel 3:4+6)

Andy Walton’s Weekly World Watch

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Preceding

U.S. Mideast naval exercise and fighter jets in the Gulf region

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Additional reading

1. Yemen: A country in crisis, what the world governments should practice and advocate to bring an end to the conflict
2. Americans need to end their indifference concerning the war in Yemen
3. The Strategist: The post-American Middle Eastern order
4. The Roots and Consequences of Hamas’ Strategy
5. In the news the Fourth week of December 2023
6. The start of 2024
7. The West and the Houthi rebels – January 2024
8. Why is the US scared of Israel despite global condemnation of its support for the Zionist regime?
9. UK and allies issue ‘final warning’ to Houthis over Red Sea attacks
10. How Israel’s Arrow 3 intercepted a missile in first space battle