The Houthi leader announces that 54 ships have been targeted since the start of operations and threatens “surprises”

The leader of the Yemeni Houthi group announced that his forces have targeted 54 ships since the start of their operations in the Red Sea on November 19, 2023, to support the Gaza Strip, threatening “surprises that the enemies do not expect at all.”

The leader of the Houthis in Yemen, Abdul Malik Al Houthi, announced on Thursday that his forces have targeted 54 ships since the start of their operations in the Red Sea on November 19, 2023, to support the Gaza Strip.

Al-Houthi said in a televised speech broadcast on the group's Al-Masirah channel, that his forces "targeted 54 ships as part of their operations in support of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip."

He explained, "The total number of missiles and drones reached 384 in the operations we use to target enemies."

While he considered that "the ships of the United States and Britain (in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden) received painful and devastating strikes," Al-Houthi vowed that "the group's operations will continue with high effectiveness in the direction of the Red and Arabian Seas."

He added: "We have surprises (the nature of which was not specified) that the enemies do not expect at all, and they will be very surprising and beyond what the enemy and friend can imagine."

Regarding the raids carried out by the United States and Britain on Yemen, Al-Houthi said that they "did not affect the military capabilities of our country."

He pointed out that "the enemies' statements acknowledged their failure to destroy our country's capabilities or limit the impact or momentum of these capabilities."

Since the beginning of this year, the Washington-led coalition has launched raids that it says target "Houthi sites" in various regions of Yemen, in response to its attacks in the Red Sea.

“In solidarity with the Gaza Strip, which is facing a devastating Israeli war with American support, the Houthis targeted, with missiles and drones, Israeli cargo ships or those linked to them in the Red Sea, “determining to continue their operations until the end of the war on the Strip.”

With the intervention of Washington and London and tensions taking a noticeable escalation last January, the Houthis announced that they considered all American and British ships among their military targets.