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THIS is the horror moment Yemeni Houthi rebels storm a mock Jewish home wielding assault rifles and opening fire.
The footage was released after the militant group’s leaders threatened to retaliate after US-UK airstrikes on Thursday.
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Aerial footage shows Houthi troops doing a training exercise inside an area made up of several tent ‘houses’ marked with the Star of David.
Gun wielding men holding Kalashnikov-style assault rifles are seen in the dramatic videos kicking down the front doors to the faux houses and launching savage attacks after blowing up the compound’s walls.
As the troops storm into the makeshift village in the middle of the desert they can be seen aiming at a picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hanging on the wall.
The rebels then tear the picture to the ground and stamp on it, leaving it crumpled on the floor.
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In the chilling footage they then stamp on Israel flags inside the pretend homes.
Massive explosions were also conducted – one of which saw an area covered in a US flag completely destroyed.
The troops then practiced taking hostages – dressed as Jewish people – from their own homes using assault rifles to escort them away.
After trashing the compound and taking away the hostage actors, a huge, controlled explosion of the entire mini town was seen.
TARGETED STRIKES
Senior members of the Houthi group were watching on as they saw the planned horrors unfold in front of them.
Images of the frightening drills were shared on Saturday by the rebels themselves after their leadership promised a “strong and effective response” to strikes on them this week.
The US and Britain unleashed an overnight blitz on Thursday of over 28 Houthi strongholds after weeks of carnage in the Red Sea.
The “targeted strikes” obliterated at least 60 targets and involved four RAF Typhoons, a dozen US F-35 Lightning stealth jets, US warships and submarines, laser-guided missiles, and more than 100 precision-guided munitions, including 80 Tomahawk missiles.
The Houthis confirmed five militants were killed and six injured in the large-scale raids.
Their leaders promised to retaliate to a scale “beyond the imagination” and told the US and UK they had made a “huge mistake launching the war in Yemen”.
It was the first time strikes have been launched against Houthis since the group began wreaking havoc on international shipping in mid-November.
And it marks a dramatic escalation in the Red Sea crisis that for weeks has been threatening to ignite an all-out war across the region over Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas.
In the wake of the initial strikes, multiple reports described “suspicious” boats approaching merchant ships in the area.
The UK was not involved in the latest round of attacks but Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron refused to rule out further strikes on Sunday.
‘SELF-DEFENCE’
He told NBC Britain must do what is “necessary” to protect its ships.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Friday the UK wanted to send a “strong signal” that the Houthi rebel attacks are wrong and cannot be carried out with “impunity”.
He called the joint strikes a “limited, necessary and proportionate action in self-defence”.
The US and UK said the aerial attacks were “designed to degrade the Houthis’ ability to attack maritime vessels, including commercial vessels”.
The militia group has repeatedly targeted commercial ships in the Red Sea as a means to avenge Israel’s offensive in Gaza against Hamas.
But they have been launching missiles and drones at vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel – turning one of the world’s biggest shipping lanes into an active warzone.
Around 12 percent of global trade normally passes through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea entrance between southwest Yemen and Djibouti.
On Friday, the Iranian-backed militia launched another missile towards a ship in the Gulf of Aden, south of Yemen.
It is thought the terror group – which controls large swathes of western Yemen – “mistakenly” fired the rocket at a tanker thinking it was a UK vessel.
The missile is thought to have landed in the Red Sea around 400-500m away from the Panama-flagged ship.
It was followed by three skiffs, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), which received “multiple reports” of other small boats tailing ships elsewhere in the region.
Earlier last week, masked gunmen in military uniforms stormed the St Nikolas – a Greek-owned 900ft tanker carrying 145,000 tons of Iraqi crude oil – and ordered it to sail to Iran.
Iran’s navy said the hijacking was in retaliation after a ship, and the oil it had aboard, was confiscated by the US last year.
On Tuesday, British and US warships shot down 18 Houthi drones and three cruise and anti-ship ballistic missiles that were barrelling towards them.
LIVES AT RISK
Royal Navy destroyer HMS Diamond blasted seven of the drones out of the sky and Defence Secretary Shapps stated the ship had been “deliberately targeted”.
The US and Britain had both warned the Houthis faced “consequences” for Tuesday’s attack.
General Michael Erik Kurilla, United States Central Command Commander, said: “We hold the Houthi militants and their destabilising Iranian sponsors responsible for the illegal, indiscriminate, and reckless attacks on international shipping.
General Kurilla said that the attacks have impacted 55 nations so far and endangered hundreds of mariners – putting their lives at risk.
He continued: “Their illegal and dangerous actions will not be tolerated, and they will be held accountable.”
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