US-British airstrikes not affect Houthis 'military capabilities': Group leader

Sanaa, Feb 9: Leader of the Yemen's Houthi group Abdulmalik al-Houthi has said the US-British coalition airstrikes against his group's camps have not affected its military capabilities.

"The American-British strikes on our country (group's camps) this week amounted to 86 strikes and have not affected or limited our armed capabilities," he said on Thursday in a televised speech aired by the group's TV channel al-Masirah, adding "our missile attacks will continue in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden".

The group's attacks would stop only when "the US, Britain and Israel allow access of food and medicine to the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip and stop conflict on the Palestinians," al-Houthi said, adding that his group's operations are part of a wide move of the regional resistance, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Houthi group has launched dozens of missile attacks against commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea since mid-November last year, in what the group said in solidarity to Palestinians in Gaza.

The attacks have already disrupted the movement of international shipping in the Red Sea and Suez Canal, damaging many vessels, and forcing many more to re-route around the African continent, which caused increase in shipping prices to Europe.

In response, the US-British maritime coalition hit back in an attempt to deter the group from launching further attacks on the commercial vessels and US and British navy ships, but the group has instead increased escalation.

The Houthi group has been controlling the strategic Red Sea port city of Hodeidah since the 2018 UN-brokered Stockholm Agreement, which was backed by the US and Britain, forcing the Yemeni internationally recognised government out.