U.S. warns ships to stay out of Red Sea; Houthis vow response
The U.S. Navy on Friday warned Americanflagged vessels to steer clear of areas around Yemen in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden for the next 72 hours after the U.S. and Britain launched multiple airstrikes targeting Houthi rebels.
The warning in a notice to shippers came as Yemen's Houthis vowed fierce retaliation for the U.S.-led strikes, further raising the prospect of a wider conflict in a region already beset by Israel's war in Gaza.
U.S. military and White House officials said they expected the Houthis to try to strike back. And President Joe Biden warned Friday that the group could face further strikes.
The U.S.-led bombardment — launched in response to a recent campaign of drone and missile attacks on commercial ships in the vital Red Sea — killed at least five people and wounded six, the Houthis said. The U.S. said the strikes, in two waves, took aim at targets in 28 different locations across Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
“We will make sure that we respond to the Houthis if they continue this outrageous behavior along with our allies,” Biden told reporters during a stop in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
Asked if he believes the Houthis are a terrorist group, Biden responded, “I think they are.”
The White House said in November that it was considering redesignating the Houthis as a terrorist organization after they began their targeting of civilian vessels. The Biden administration formally delisted the Houthis as a “foreign terrorist organization” and “specially designated global terrorists” in 2021, undoing a move by President Donald Trump
Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, director of the Joint Staff, said that the new U.S. strikes were largely in lowpopulated areas, and the number of those killed would not be high. He said the strikes hit weapons, radar and targeting sites, including in remote mountain areas.
As the bombing lit the predawn sky over multiple sites held by the Iranianbacked rebels, it forced the world to again focus on Yemen's yearslong war, which began when the Houthis seized the country's capital.
Since November, the rebels repeatedly have targeted ships in the Red Sea, saying they were avenging Israel's offensive in Gaza against Hamas. But they frequently have targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for global trade and energy shipments.
The Houthis' military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, said in a recorded address that the strikes would “not go unanswered or unpunished.”
Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat and former U.S. intelligence official, welcomed the U.S. strikes but expressed concern Iran was aiming to draw the U.S. deeper into conflict.
“We should be worried about regional escalation,” Slotkin wrote on X. “Iran uses groups like the Houthis to fight their battles, maintain plausible deniability and prevent a direct conflict with the U.S. or others . ... It needs to stop, and my hope is they've gotten the message.”
The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which oversees Mideast waters, reported Friday evening a new missile attack off Yemen. The missiles caused no injures or damage, the organization said.
“Vessels are advised to transit with caution,” it warned.
Though the Biden administration and its allies have tried to calm tensions in the Middle East for weeks and prevent any wider conflict, the strikes threatened to ignite one.
Saudi Arabia — which supports the governmentin-exile that the Houthis are fighting — quickly sought to distance itself from the attacks as it seeks to maintain a delicate detente with Iran and a ceasefire it has in Yemen.