Inside Yemen: Locals tell ITV News how international crisis is affecting them

ITV News is the first British broadcaster to report from within Yemen since the joint US-UK airstrikes began against Houthi targets, ITV News Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo reports from Aden

ITV News spoke to Yemeni locals about how the international crisis is affecting them, in the first on the ground report inside the country by a British broadcaster since the joint US-UK airstrikes began against Houthi targets.

For years, geographical and political divisions across Yemen has made it a battleground for international and civil war.

But in recent months the Houthis - accused of being an Iranian proxy - have become embroiled in a monumental conflict after it launched dozens of attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The Houthi defense is the ships it strikes are linked to Israel and claim they will stop once the military offensive in Gaza is halted.

Last week, the US and the UK took military action against the Houthis.

But it was met with the promise of retaliation by the Houthis, with the latest target being a US vessel being struck by a bomb-carrying drone on Wednesday.

ITV News' Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo is reporting from Aden, in the south of the country.

The crisis off the shores of Yemen, is just another chapter in what marks a desperate decade for the country.

Locals in the south of the country believe the Houthi strikes are a threat to their safety.

"Our priority is to support Gaza and our country," one young man told ITV News.

"We support Gaza but the Houthis are backed by the Iranians. This regime is Iranian not Yemeni."

Thousands of miles away, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, promised that if the Israeli offensive stopped in Gaza it will lead to the end of the attacks in Yemen.

But the public attempt made at a defence by Mr Amir-Abdollahian is a source of frustration for Yemeni soldiers fighting the Houthis.

One drone operator, who has recently returned home from fighting in the north of Yemen, told our team that Iran is stoking tensions and that the Houthis must have known the consequences of the attacks.

US to designate the Houthis as a terror group

The US has declared the Houthis are now labelled a terrorist organisation, citing unprecedented attacks against US forces and maritime trade as the reason for its decision.

Officials said they would design the financial penalties to minimise harm to Yemen's 32 million people, who are among the world's poorest and hungriest after years of war between the Iran-backed Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition.

It will take 30 days for the "designated terror group" label to come into effect - the delay is to allow conversations with NGOs and to reduce the impact on Yemeni people.

The US said it would be willing to look at not implementing the sanction if the Houthis stopped their attacks in the coming days.

The foreign terrorist designation would bar American people and organisations subject to US jurisdiction from providing “material support” to the Houthis.

However, human rights and humanitarian aid groups said this would result in an even greater humanitarian catastrophe than what is already happening in Yemen.

US authorities hope designating the Houthis as a terror group would break off the international finance systems they use and say it will apply additional pressure to push the group away from Iran.

Previously, the Trump administration designated the Houthis a Foreign Terrorist Organisation over the strong objections of human rights and humanitarian aid groups.

But US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delisted the Houthis as both foreign terrorist organisations and as specially designated global terrorists in February 2021 as the administration sought to make it easier to get humanitarian aid into Yemen.

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