DIGIVESTASI - Houthi forces announced that they immediately launched retaliatory airstrikes against US and British warships in the Red Sea on Friday (January 21).

A senior Houthi official, Abdul Salam Jahaf, said his group's airstrikes were in response to the US and UK bombing of several Yemeni cities on Friday morning. The Houthi regime's Yemeni Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Al Ezzi warned that the US and UK would face dire consequences as a result of this blatant act of aggression. 

"Our country has suffered devastating attacks from American and British ships, submarines and warplanes, and America and Britain must certainly be prepared to pay a heavy price and bear all the terrible consequences of this blatant act of aggression.

The Houthis have controlled large parts of Yemen, particularly the capital Sanaa, since 2014, when civil war broke out in the country. 

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said his forces had struck a number of Houthi targets in Yemen, such as military posts and militia warehouses. The US and UK attacks mark a new escalation of Hamas' war against Israel, which has been ongoing since October 7. 

Since Israel destroyed Hamas in Gaza, Houthi forces have launched a series of attacks against the Zionist state. The Houthis then escalated their attacks against Israel by starting to attack and hijack Israeli-related commercial ships crossing the Red Sea. The Houthis said the attacks were aimed at protecting Palestine, which is still being brutally attacked by Israel.