Yemenis responded with hundreds of thousands on Friday to the Houthis' call to demonstrate in Sanaa against attacks by the United States and United Kingdom against those rebels in retaliation for their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
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The crowd filled the large Sabine Square in central Sanaa under a forest of Yemeni and Palestinian flags and numerous portraits of rebel leader Abdelmalek al-Houthi and the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, whose groups are backed by Iran.
AFP
“Death to America, death to Israel,” chanted the demonstrators, supporters of the rebels who control the capital Sanaa and several regions of Yemen.
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AFP
According to an AFP correspondent, some were brandishing AK-47 assault rifles.
Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, demonstrations in support of Palestinians in Gaza have been held every Friday in Sanaa.
But the latest gathering took on a special character after several hours of American and British strikes against Houthi targets in retaliation for their attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea.
AFP
“If America and its allies decide to declare open war on us, we will be prepared and will have no choice but to achieve victory or fall as martyrs,” said Abdel Azim Ali, one of the protesters.
AFP
“We are waiting for the day when we will be drawn into a war with America,” added another Mohammed Hussein.
According to US Central Command, the US and UK attacked dozens of rebel sites in Yemen on Thursday evening.
AFP
In a statement on behalf of the demonstrators, one of the organizers spoke of “a million” participants. The “American-British aggression against Yemen is a show of support for the Zionist entity and an attempt to stop us from supporting Palestine,” he said.
“We bless the holy struggle (for the liberation of Palestine) and give our leader (Abdelmalek al-Houthi) the power to lead it,” he added.
According to AFP correspondents, other demonstrations took place in other cities controlled by the Houthis, such as Hodeida (west) and Ibb (south).