Many Yemenis are skeptical of Washington’s commitment to weaken the military capabilities of the Houthis in Yemen. They see the recent strikes on military sites in five Yemeni provinces as nothing more than a proportional response to an attack on a single destroyer.
Expecting a limited impact from the strikes, Yemeni observers compared them to the US approach against Iranian-backed groups in Iraq.
Col. Sadeq Dweid, the spokesperson for the National Resistance Forces led by Gen. Tareq Saleh, a member of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), dismissed the recent airstrikes by the US and UK on Houthi targets as “not serious.”
He argued that foreign intervention is “not a solution and is unacceptable.”
Dweid said these strikes are part of internal maneuvering, emphasizing instead the importance of supporting the Yemeni government as the only legitimate representative of the country.
Many activists and residents share this view, believing that Washinton’s announcement to the Houthis that it intends to retaliate against them is confirmation that the aim wasn’t the destruction of the militias’ military capabilities, but simply a response to their targeting of an American destroyer in the Red Sea.
The militias had fired 24 drones and six ballistic and naval missiles against the vessel.
Yemeni journalist Fares Al-Humairi said the US and British strikes on Houthi-held areas hit positions which are not of strategic importance and others which don’t offer any support to the operations the militias are carrying out in the Red Sea.
Before the strikes, the Houthis moved weapons, including over 100 naval missiles, from dismantled military bases in Hodeidah to storage facilities, noted Al-Humairi.
Yemeni teacher Ahmed Abdulhameed said the US will handle the Houthis the same way it handled Iranian groups in Iraq - responding with limited strikes to each provocation.
He noted that Washington chooses to overlook the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq even though it an Iran-aligned group.
Abdullah Yahya echoed these remarks, saying the targeted locations hold no military significance to the Houthis.
Moreover, he explained that the militias, with help from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah, are experienced in disassembling rockets and concealing them in caves or the dense palm tree farms near the Red Seas coast.
