The US government is preparing to re-designate Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a “terrorist” entity, following their series of attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea, US media reported Tuesday night.

The announcement is expected today and will come a day after the US military launched new strikes in Yemen, targeting four Houthi missiles that posed an “imminent threat” to merchant and warships, according to a US government official.

It was the third US military operation in less than a week against the Houthis, who are now systematically targeting ships off the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country in a sign of “solidarity” with the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip. and the army of Israel is crushed.

Rebels again targeted a merchant ship yesterday, the joint command of the US armed forces responsible for the Middle East region (CENTCOM, “central command”) said.

Last week, there were US-British raids against around thirty installations in Yemen. The US military then attacked radar and infrastructure with drones and missiles, raising concerns that the war in the Middle East would spread. US President Joe Biden called the Houthis a “terrorist” organization in his announcement of military operations.

The Shiite rebel movement threatens to proceed with “strong and effective” retaliation.

Last month, the US created a multinational naval coalition to protect international shipping in the Red Sea, a critical sea route through which about 12 percent of world trade passes.

“We’re not looking for a regional conflict, nothing else,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Instead, “we seek to stop the spread of the conflict and create conditions (favoring) de-escalation,” he added.

The Houthis are part of the so-called “axis of resistance” against Israel and the US. It is made up of organizations supported by Iran, such as the Palestinian Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah.

The US had in February 2021 removed the Houthis from the list of “terrorist” organizations it compiles. Washington said at the time that this designation complicated the handling of the severe humanitarian crisis in Yemen, a country where war has raged since 2014. The Ansarallah movement, or Houthis as it is better known by the family name of its leaders, controls much of country, including the capital Sanaa.