Yemen's Houthis voice support for Iran's attack on Israel
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis has described Tehran's major aerial attack on Israel as a "legitimate" response to a suspected Israeli bombing of an Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus earlier this month.
"[Iran] will not be able to get away with its crimes unpunished," the militia's spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Salam said in a post on social media platform X, referring to Israel, Iran's arch-foe.
Houthi militants have been attacking ships in the Red Sea in what they say is retaliation for Israel's devastating onslaught in the Gaza Strip.
Because of the continuing Houthi attacks, major shipping companies are increasingly avoiding the shortest sea route between Asia and Europe and sailing around the much longer route of South Africa's Cape of Good Hope instead.
The Houthis say they want to force an end to the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which followed attacks by the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas in Israel in October last year.
