The US struck "ghost" targets and the Houthis were "fully prepared" for recent US and British attacks on Yemen, Major General Abdullah al-Jafri told Sputnik.
"We were fully prepared for these attacks, we knew that the US and its agents would strike. By committing such aggression [against Yemen], Washington has opened a Pandora's box that it cannot close," al-Jafri said.
The major general believed that with this attack, Washington is trying to restore its “prestige” and protect Israeli ships in the Red Sea, since it realized that Israel “has reached the stage of complete collapse” as a result of the economic crisis caused precisely by the Houthi attacks in the Red and Arabian Seas.
"It was our conscious and unwavering decision [to attack Israeli ships] in order to achieve justice for the oppressed Palestinian people, who are subjected to genocide every day," al-Jafri told Sputnik.
Furthermore, al-Jafri recalled that Yemen has been facing American aggression for nine years, emphasizing that the Americans have used all types of weapons against Yemenis, including those prohibited internationally. However, the US was never able to achieve its goals, "even though it's been a proxy war," the major general pointed out.
"The Yemeni army continues to resist the US and others with all its might. We hope that the confrontation with the US will be direct, without the hybrid wars that Washington is unleashing with the help of its satellites both within the country and abroad," the speaker expressed his hopes.
Al-Jafri added that Yemen will "resolutely" respond to the aggression of the US and the UK, and they will face “extremely painful consequences for their actions.”
On Thursday night, the US and UK military forces conducted several airstrikes on multiple targets located in four Yemeni provinces. Russia strongly disapproved the attack as a "pretext for further escalation of tension in the region," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, stated on Friday.
Moreover, a member of the Houthi Politburo, Muhammad al-Buheyti, told Sputnik that the attack on Yemen was "absolutely unjustified," since the Houthis targeted only commercial vessels associated with Israel.