Prime minister Keir Starmer quietly involved Britain’s armed forces in President Donald Trump’s bombardment of Yemen last weekend, Declassified can confirm.
A Royal Air Force (RAF) Voyager aerial refuelling tanker carried out two flights from Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus into the northern Red Sea to support the USS Harry S. Truman.
The US aircraft carrier launched multiple waves of air raids across Yemen on Saturday and Sunday in Trump’s largest military operation since returning to office.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump warned Yemen’s Houthi group: ‘HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!’
Starmer participated in the raids on Yemen for the first time since Labour took power, although the RAF did not announce its involvement.
Publicly available flight tracking data shows that on Saturday 15 March an RAF Voyager departed Akrotiri at 17:49 UTC and headed south into the Red Sea.
The refuelling tanker reached the area just south of Jeddah in waters off Saudi Arabia’s coast, where US naval vessels were stationed, at around 19:20.
The Voyager KC2, with its capacity of more than a hundred tonnes of fuel, spent more than two hours at the location of the USS Harry S. Truman.
The first strikes in Yemen were recorded around 17:15 UTC and lasted for more than five hours.
A defence source confirmed to Declassified that ‘the UK provided routine allied air-to-air refuelling support to aid the self defence of a US aircraft carrier in the region from which the strikes were launched.’
At least 27 civilians were reported killed and 22 injured in the first night of American airstrikes across seven of Yemen’s governorates.
The Houthi’s Al-Masirah TV aired footage of distressed and severely burnt children receiving medical care, apparent victims of strikes in the governorate of Sa’ada.
Strikes also targeted the building of the Houthi’s Supreme Political Council, known as the politburo, in the north of the capital, Sana’a.
US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz later claimed in an interview with ABC News that the strikes killed ‘multiple [Houthi] leaders’.
The Voyager repeated its journey from Cyprus to the northern Red Sea the following day, on the evening of 16 March.
The US carried out a second night of strikes on Sunday, hitting the bridge of the Galaxy Leader merchant vessel – which the Houthis previously captured in November 2023 – docked in Hodeidah port, and the northern governorate of Al-Jawf.
By Monday, the Health Ministry in the Houthi-controlled capital Sana’a raised the death toll to 53, including five children and two women.
It comes weeks after demonstrators gathered outside the RAF’s base at Akrotiri to protest against Britain using Cyprus as a launch pad for military operations in the Middle East.
A Yemeni resident in the south of the country, not under Houthi control, told Declassified that sentiment in anti-Houthi territory has changed over the course of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Despite having fought the Houthis since 2015 there is growing support for their stance against Israel, the US and, by extension, the UK.
‘Britain supporting America in these efforts is not surprising,’ he said. ‘Here, in the south, we have our own history with the British of course,’ he said, referring to southern Yemen’s period of being under British colonial rule.
‘But, with or without the UK helping them, the US, they cannot get rid of the Houthis by force,’ he added, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from authorities.
‘They are part of Yemeni society and the mixed fabric of the country’s politics. The support the Houthis will gain from resisting the US and the UK will become more widespread the longer the airstrikes go on and increase with every civilian that is killed.’
The US strikes mark a notable escalation and the heaviest bombing in Yemen since the Saudi-led bombing campaign ended in March 2022.
However, the bombings are also a continuation of the joint air war launched under the banner of Operation Poseidon Archer by the Biden administration with the support of Britain’s then prime minister Rishi Sunak.
Since January last year, the US and UK have carried out more than 300 strikes, killing 21 civilians and injuring 64.
The last US strikes were recorded hours before the ceasefire in Gaza came into effect on 19 January.
Britain has not officially admitted to bombing Yemen since May 2024, the deadliest month of bombing under the two previous US and UK governments.
Sixteen civilians were reportedly killed and 35 injured that month, although it is unclear if the two strikes resulting in mass civilian casualties last May were carried out by British fighter jets or American strikes.
The Houthis began their campaign against ‘all ships in the Red Sea bound for Israeli ports, regardless of their nationality’ in November 2023, in response to Israel’s war on Gaza.
Despite the US-UK bombing campaign, the Houthis carried out almost 100 attacks against merchant vessels, including the sinking of the Rubymar in March 2024 and later setting two vessels ablaze, killing three merchant mariners.
The group also carried out scores of ballistic missile and drone attacks against Israel, who have responded with their own airstrikes in Yemen since July 2024. Further attacks by the Houthis repeatedly targeted a Royal Navy destroyer and the US Navy.
The last recorded Houthi attack on international shipping in the Red Sea was the targeting of an Israeli bulk carrier on 18 November.
In the following two months the Houthis focused their attacks on the USS Harry S Truman carrier strike group.
But, the ceasefire in Gaza in January resulted in a de-facto ceasefire in Yemen. There had been no Houthi attacks or US-UK strikes since the ceasefire came into effect on 19 January – before Trump came into office.
However Houthi leader, Abdul Malek al-Houthi, repeatedly warned in his weekly addresses that attacks would resume if Israel breached the ceasefire.
Israel’s recent blockade on Gaza, preventing food, aid and medical teams from entering the strip, prompted an ultimatum from the Houthis. On 7 March the Houthis gave Israel four days to lift the Gaza siege.
When the deadline passed on 11 March, Houthi armed forces announced the resumption of their ban on Israeli-linked vessels travelling through the Red Sea, a ban they said would last until Israel allowed humanitarian aid into Gaza.
While the US administration, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, claimed the strikes were to stop Houthi attacks on global shipping, no merchant vessels had been targeted by the Houthis for four months.
The Houthi politburo accused the US of conducting strikes on behalf of Israel and Houthi armed forces responded on Sunday by launching more than a dozen ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones at the USS Harry S. Truman, projectiles that were all intercepted, according to the US.
Houthi spokesman, Mohammed Abdulsalam posted on X: ‘The US air raids represent a return to the militarisation of the Red Sea, which is the real threat to international navigation in the region.’
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a senior Houthi leader, told Declassified the group was ‘forcing US aircraft carriers to turn away, making their aircraft unable to attack Yemen without mid-air refuelling. Therefore, Britain’s participation in refuelling these aircraft enables America to carry out further attacks. This is an immoral act, both as an unjustified aggression against Yemen and as a shield for the perpetrators of genocide in Gaza.
‘We advise Britain to cease its involvement in the aggression against Yemen, as it is dishonourable, as it constitutes a practical complicity in the killing of women and children in Gaza and in the perpetration of genocide. This is also necessary to prevent its forces and interests from becoming legitimate military targets imposed by our need for self-defence.’
Source: Declassified UK