U.S. leads second strike against Houthis in Yemen
Militia group backed by Iran vows to retaliate for attacks, fires one missile into Red Sea
WASHINGTON — The United States led another strike against the Houthi militia in Yemen, two U.S. officials said Friday night, bombing a radar facility as part of an effort to further degrade the Iran-backed group’s ability to attack ships transiting the Red Sea.
It was the second straight day the U.S. military fired on a Houthi target. The strikes come amid fears of a wider escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.
Houthi forces in Yemen vowed earlier Friday to retaliate for the previous strikes, which involved missiles and warplanes launched by the United States and Britain, and came in response to intensifying attacks on commercial vessels and warships in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Houthi militia, which has said it was acting in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas.
Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, director of the U.S. military’s Joint Staff, told reporters on a conference call before the new strike the Pentagon was more than ready for a response from the Houthis.
“I would expect that they will attempt some sort of retaliation,” said Sims. “We simply are not going to be messed with here.”
A military spokesperson for the Houthis, Yahya Saree, said in a social media post Friday the U.S.-led strikes would “not go unanswered and unpunished.” He said the earlier strikes had killed at least five members of the Houthi forces, an armed group that controls northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa.
The response Friday from the Houthis, however, was a single anti-ship missile lobbed harmlessly into the Red Sea, far from any passing vessel, Sims said.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said Friday the strikes, ordered by President Joe Biden, had not been intended to ignite a wider regional war.
“We’re not interested in a war with Yemen — we’re not interested in a conflict of any kind,” he said. “In fact, everything the president has been doing has been trying to prevent any escalation of conflict, including the strikes last night.”
U.S. and British forces on Friday fired more than 150 missiles and bombs at several dozen targets in Yemen, chosen specifically to damage the Houthis’ ability to imperil shipping — weapons storage areas, radars, and missile and drone launch sites — U.S. officials said. The strikes marked the first Western assault after repeated warnings by the United States and its allies the Houthis and Iran must halt the attacks at sea or face consequences, only to see them increase.
More than 2,000 ships have been forced to divert thousands of miles to avoid the Red Sea, causing weeks of delays, U.S. officials say. On Tuesday, U.S. and British warships intercepted one of the largest barrages of Houthi drone and missile strikes yet, an assault U.S. and other Western military officials said was the last straw.
Military analysts earlier Friday were still assessing the results of the first barrage, but Sims said the strikes had achieved their objective of damaging the Houthis’ ability to launch the kind of complex drone and missile attack they conducted Tuesday.
The consequences of the tensions in the Red Sea have spread far beyond the Middle East. A number of commercial ships headed for the Suez Canal changed course after the U.S.-led strikes. The Suez Canal, which handles more than 20,000 ships a year, providing billions of dollars in transit fees for Egypt, has seen traffic slashed as hundreds of ships have diverted their journeys to avoid the canal and the Red Sea, taking the much longer route around the southern tip of Africa, adding from one to three weeks.
Analysts who study the Houthis said the U.S.-led airstrikes could play into the group’s agenda and might be unlikely to stop the group’s attacks.
“This was not a miscalculation by the Houthis,” said Hannah Porter, a senior research officer at ARK Group, a British company that works in international development.
“This was the goal. They hope to see an expanded regional war, and they are eager to be on the front lines of that war.”