SANAA/JERUSALEM, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi group on Thursday said that they had launched joint aerial attacks with an Iraqi group, targeting ships in Israel's port of Haifa, though the Israeli military denied the claim.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a statement aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV that "the precise operations" were carried out with drones in retaliation for the "massacres committed by the Israeli enemy in the (Palestinian) area of Rafah" in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israeli military sources told Xinhua that they were "unfamiliar with such an incident." Witnesses from companies operating in Haifa said that the port was operating normally.
Sarea claimed that one operation targeted two ships carrying military equipment, and another targeted a ship that "violated the Houthi's entry ban on the port of Haifa in occupied Palestine (Israel)."
The Israeli enemy should expect more operations, said the spokesman.
The Houthi rebel group, which controls several cities in northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, began last November to launch anti-ship ballistic missiles and drones targeting what they said were Israeli-linked ships transiting the Red Sea, to show solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
In response, the U.S.-British naval coalition stationed in the waters has since January conducted air raids and missile strikes against Houthi targets to deter the group, but it only led to an expansion of Houthi attacks to include U.S. and British commercial vessels and naval ships. ■
