US Military Carries Out Airstrikes against Yemen’s Houthis

Houthi supporters hold their weapons up during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sanaa, Yemen, 03 January 2025. (EPA)
Houthi supporters hold their weapons up during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sanaa, Yemen, 03 January 2025. (EPA)
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US Military Carries Out Airstrikes against Yemen’s Houthis

Houthi supporters hold their weapons up during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sanaa, Yemen, 03 January 2025. (EPA)
Houthi supporters hold their weapons up during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sanaa, Yemen, 03 January 2025. (EPA)

The US military says it carried out a wave of strikes against what it said were underground arms facilities of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militias.

The US Central Command said in a statement that Wednesday’s strikes targeted weapons used by the Houthis to attack ships in the Red Sea.

The Houthis said seven strikes targeted sites in the Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, and the northern Amran province, without providing further details. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The United States and its allies have carried out repeated strikes on the Houthis, who have continued to target shipping.

The militias say they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.



Lebanon's New President Says to Ensure State Has Exclusive Right to Carry Arms

This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
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Lebanon's New President Says to Ensure State Has Exclusive Right to Carry Arms

This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)

Lebanon's newly elected President Joseph Aoun told lawmakers on Thursday that he will work to ensure the state has the exclusive right to carry arms, in his first speech at parliament after he was elected.

His comments were seen partly as a reference to Hezbollah's arsenal, which he had not commented on publicly as the former army commander.

In a first round of voting Thursday, Aoun received 71 out of 128 votes but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to win outright. Of the rest, 37 lawmakers cast blank ballots and 14 voted for “sovereignty and the constitution.”
In the second round, he received 99 votes.

In his speech in parliament, Aoun also pledged to carry out reforms to the judicial system and fight corruption.

He promised to control the country’s borders and “ensure the activation of the security services and to discuss a strategic defense policy that will enable the Lebanese state to remove the Israeli occupation from all Lebanese territories” in southern Lebanon, where the Israeli military has not yet withdrawn from dozens of villages.

He also vowed to reconstruct “what the Israeli army destroyed in the south, east and (Beirut’s southern) suburbs.”

Thursday’s vote came weeks after a tenuous ceasefire agreement halted a 14-month conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and at a time when Lebanon’s leaders are seeking international assistance for reconstruction.

Aoun said he would call for parliamentary consultations as soon as possible on naming a new prime minister.