The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On August 6, 2024, Abdel-Aziz bin Habtour, prime minister of Yemen's Iran-backed Ansar Allah Movement (the Houthis), told[1] Yemen's Houthi-run Al-Masirah media outlet that Yemen, as part of the "resistance axis," would participate in the "response to the Zionist entity [Israel]." He stated that a decision to commit a "painful response" against Israel had "already been made," in retaliation for its "violations" against the "blood" of "our people" in Gaza and Palestine, and the "assassination" of the "martyr" [slain Hamas political leader] Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Referring to "American threats," the Houthi prime minister asserted that the U.S. "confrontation" with Yemen would be "a thousand times worse" than the toll America suffered in Vietnam and Afghanistan. He called on the "resistance" in Gaza to show more "patience and steadfastness," and stressed the importance of "collective action" in facing "challenges."
On August 4, the Houthis claimed responsibility for downing a U.S. drone in Yemen's Sa'dah governorate and firing ballistic missiles at a ship in the Gulf of Aden.[2] This was the first Houthi claim of responsibility since July 21, when the group claimed targeting the "American ship" Pumba in the Red Sea with ballistic missiles and drones.[3]
In a July 31 statement following the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Houthi political leaders vowed to stand with "mujahideen in the Hamas Movement and the entire resistance axis," and threatened: "The Zionist and American enemies must bear responsibility for their widening of the arena of the war and wave of assassinations against senior members of the resistance."[4]
[1] Almasirahnews.com, August 7, 2024.
[2] See MEMRI JTTM report: In First Operations Since July 21, Houthi Ansar Allah Movement Claims Shooting Down U.S. Drone, Missile Attack On Commercial Ship In Gulf Of Aden, August 5, 2024.
