300 American-British Airstrikes Have Hit Yemen During Last Three Weeks

The Houthi group Monday said that the United States and Britain "targeted Yemen with 300 airstrikes" since the beginning of their attacks last month. Hussein Al-Azzi, the deputy foreign minister, said in a press conference the U.S.-UK strikes will not affect their stance on Gaza and Palestine. He stated, "We are putting all our resources into supporting Gaza and cannot stop our operations until the Israeli aggression on Gaza stops. He added, "He added, "We are ready to make the dearest sacrifices for the victory of the will of good over the will of evil." The U.S. and the U.K. say the air raids intend to degrade the Houthi missile and drone capabilities to mitigate the attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea.

Italy will become a target if it takes part in attacks against Yemen, a senior official from Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said in an interview published on Monday. Mohamed Ali Al-Houthi, head of the Houthi's supreme revolutionary committee, said Italy must be neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and put pressure on Israel to stop attacks on Gaza, adding that would be the only way to achieve peace in the region. Italy said on Friday it would provide the admiral in command of a European Union Red Sea naval mission it has joined to protect ships from attacks by Yemen's Houthi group.

During the past week, the demining Masam project removed more than 700 Houthi mines in several Yemeni provinces. It said in a statement that its field teams managed to eliminate 731 mines from January 27 to February 2, 2024. It added that among the removed mines were four anti-personnel mines, 93 anti-tank mines, 622 unexploded ordnance, and 12 explosive devices.It indicated that the total number of mines removed since the "Masam" project began reached 431,054 mines.

The United States on Sunday warned Iran and the militias it arms and funds that it will conduct more attacks if American forces in the Mideast continue to be targeted but that it does not want an "open-ended military campaign" across the region. "We are prepared to deal with anything that any group or any country tries to come at us with," said Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden's national security adviser. Sullivan said Iran should expect "a swift and forceful response" if it — and not one of its proxies — "chose to respond directly" against the U.S.