Farrukh Abadi
Early Friday morning local time, the United States and five other countries carried out over a dozen military strikes against Ansar Allah, commonly known as the Houthi movement, in Yemen.
Ansar Allah’s political cabinet member Ali Al-Qahoum has stated: “”The battle will surpass the imagination and expectations of the Yankees and the British. The war is open and the Yankees and the British will regret their aggression and pay a heavy price.”
The strikes come as a response to a number of attacks Ansar Allah has carried out against commercial ships that are going to or from Israel through the Red Sea over the last few months, in solidarity with the national liberation struggle unfolding in Palestine. Such attacks have forced thousands of commercial ships to avoid the Red Sea, resulting in weeks of delay and losses in profits for the imperialists. Ansar Allah has stated that the attacks will continue until Israel ends its attacks against Hamas in Gaza.
A Saudi-led and US-backed coalition waged 8 years of war against Ansar Allah, with a ceasefire being reached in 2022 following the military defeat of the coalition. Ansar Allah has remained defiant to US imperialism and has now pulled the US itself into war.
Ansar Allah Commander Sayyed Abdulmalik Badr El-Din Al-Houthi has stated: “If the Yankees send their soldiers to Yemen, they must know that, by the will of Allah, they will face tougher situations than they faced in Afghanistan and suffered in Vietnam. The dearest thing to us, and what we have always wished for from day one, is that the war would be direct between us and the Yankees and Zionists, and not through their agents. Any US attack on our country will make them our target, and we will make U.S. warships, interests, and shipping the targets of our missiles, drones, and military operations.”
Biden has tried to justify the imperialist aggression by making it seem as though he is protecting the interests of the people of the US, stating “I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.” Freedom to the imperialist means freedom to dominate.
The profits of imperialists are increasingly dependent on certain navigation channels for the flow of commodities, making them particularly vulnerable at choke points such as the Red Sea, through which 12% of global trade passes. When semi-colonial countries like Israel and Saudi Arabia are unable to realize the military defeat of the masses, the imperialist countries themselves have to get involved in order to protect their profits.
Other forces in the region, such as the Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq, have stated their willingness to attack the US and its allies if aggression is carried out in Yemen. These confrontations, which began with the heroic and just attacks led by Hamas on October 7th, promise the defeat of Israel and the humiliation of the US in the Middle East once again.
photo: Houthi combatants dance aboard the Galaxy Leader, the Israel-linked ship seized by Ansar Allah in November 2023
