The US and UK militaries launched strikes against multiple Houthi targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Thursday, marking a significant response after the Biden administration and its allies warned that the Iran-backed militant group would bear the consequences of repeated drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
President Joe Biden said he ordered the strikes “in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea.”
“Today, at my direction, US military forces—together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands—successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways,” the president said in a statement released by the White House.
Biden added that he will “not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.”
US and coalition forces “executed deliberate strikes on over 60 targets at 16 Iranian-backed Houthi militant locations, including command and control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities, and air defense radar systems,” according to a statement from US Air Forces Central Commander Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich.
More than 100 precision-guided munitions “of various types” were used, he said.
The strikes are a sign of the growing international alarm over the threat to one of the world’s most critical waterways. For weeks, the US had sought to avoid direct strikes on Yemen because of the risk of escalation in a region already simmering with tension as the Israel-Hamas war continues, but the ongoing Houthi attacks on international shipping compelled the coalition to act.
Though the US has carried out strikes against Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, this marks the first known strike against the Houthis in Yemen.
The strikes were from fighter jets and Tomahawk missiles. More than a dozen Houthi targets were fired upon by missiles fired from air, surface, and sub-platforms and were chosen for their ability to degrade the Houthis’ continued attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, a US official said.
They included radar systems, drone storage and launch sites, ballistic missile and launch sites, and cruise missile storage and launch sites.
The Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping on Tuesday marked the final straw that culminated in Biden giving the green light for the US to move forward with Thursday’s strikes. However, preparations have been ongoing for some time, a senior US official said.
The strikes come as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin remains hospitalised following complications from a surgery for prostate cancer. A senior Defense official said Austin ordered and monitored the strikes in real-time from the hospital “with a full suite of secure communications.”
The Houthis — an Iran-backed Shia political and military organisation that has been fighting a civil war in Yemen against a coalition backed by Saudi Arabia — have been launching drones and missiles at commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea for weeks, many of which have been intercepted and shot down by US Navy ships in the area.
The Houthi’s deputy foreign minister, Hussein al-Ezzi, claimed that Yemen was targeted in a “massive aggressive assault.” In a speech Thursday, Houthi leader Abdul Malek Al-Houthi said that any US attack on Yemen ” will not go unanswered,” cryptically warning that the response will be “much more” than attacking US ships in the sea.
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned while travelling in the region that “if it doesn’t stop, there will have to be consequences. And unfortunately, it hasn’t stopped.”
Blinken also said he doesn’t believe the war in Gaza is escalating into a regional conflict, even as he warned of “a lot of danger points.” While in the region, Blinken visited Bahrain, home to the US Naval Forces Central Command and the Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
According to a senior State Department official, an important aspect of Blinken’s trip to the Middle East was to tell regional leaders that if the US takes military action against the Houthis, it should be seen as defensive, not escalatory.
There have been at least 27 Houthi attacks since November 19. As the US and its allies have been navigating the Houthis’ ongoing attacks, there have also been at least 131 attacks on US and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria since October 17, leading to several strikes on facilities linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other proxy forces.
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