At least 148 missile strikes have hit Yemen since the US and the UK launched a new bombing campaign against the Houthis in January, according to the Yemen Data Project (YDP).
YDP said in the first 80 days of the US-led bombing campaign that started on January 12, a total of 339 munitions have hit Yemen, averaging more than four per day. The UK has joined the US in several rounds of missile strikes, but most have been unilateral US attacks on Houthi-controlled Yemen.
YDP said there was a drop in strikes in March, with 35 recorded, compared with 79 in February. The group said there were no reports of civilian casualties in March after 11 were recorded in February.
Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in March that a total of 34 Houthi fighters had been killed since the Yemeni group, officially known as Ansar Allah, began targeting Israel-linked shipping in the Red Sea last year in response to the onslaught in Gaza.
The US-British bombing campaign has done nothing to deter the Red Sea attacks and has only escalated the situation as the Houthis began targeting American and British shipping in response. In January, President Biden acknowledged the bombing wasn’t “working” but vowed to continue anyway.
The Houthis have been clear that the only way they would stop targeting Israel-linked shipping is if the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza comes to an end. But the US chose escalation instead of pressuring the Israelis to stop by leveraging military aid.
The US backed a brutal Saudi/UAE war against the Houthis from 2015-2022 that involved heavy airstrikes and a blockade, and the group only became more of a capable fighting force during that time.
The war killed at least 377,000 people, and more than half died of starvation and disease caused by the siege. A ceasefire between the Houthis and Saudis has held relatively well since April 2022, but new US sanctions are now blocking the implementation of a lasting peace deal.