How the US, UK bombing of Yemen might help the Houthis

The Yemeni group could gain from a raised domestic and international profile, with a superpower taking them on.

Beirut, Lebanon – Yemen’s Houthis will not be deterred by United States-led attacks on them in retaliation for their targeting of Israel-linked ships in the Red Sea, and could in fact be emboldened further, say analysts.

On Thursday night, the US and the United Kingdom bombed multiple sites in Yemen that Washington said were Houthi facilities, a day after they shot down missiles fired by the Yemeni group in the Red Sea. The bombings are the first time during this war that the US or its allies have attacked Yemeni territory.

But the Houthis could gain from a raised regional and domestic profile, as the world’s sole superpower takes on a group that is not internationally recognised as the government of Yemen despite controlling large parts of the country, say experts.

On January 10, the US and the UK repelled 21 drones and missiles in the Houthis’ largest operation yet on Red Sea traffic. And the United Nations Security Council, with the world’s most powerful nations, focused on the attacks on Red Sea ships, in a resolution that condemned the Houthis – but also underscored their growing influence as a force to reckon with.

“The Houthis actually won that confrontation the day they started it,” Abdulghani al-Iryani, a senior researcher with the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, told Al Jazeera.