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Hey there, folks! Have you heard the latest news? Brace yourselves because the United States and the United Kingdom have just launched a series of attacks on the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. It’s a move that has sent shockwaves through the international community and has left many wondering about the potential consequences. In this blog post, we’ll dive into the details of this escalating conflict and explore what it means for the region and beyond. So, grab a cuppa, and let’s get started!
launch attacks on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
On Thursday, the US and UK militaries launched strikes against multiple Houthi targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, marking a significant response after the Biden administration and its allies warned that the Iran-backed militant group would face the consequences of repeated drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
President Joe Biden stated that he ordered the strikes “in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea.”
“Today, at my direction, U.S. 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 commander-in-chief said in a statement issued by the White House on Monday.
Vice President Biden said he would “not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.”
According to a statement from US Air Forces Central Commander Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, US and coalition forces “deliberately struck over 60 targets at 16 Iranian-backed Houthi militant locations, including command and control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities, and air defence radar systems.” He stated that about 100 precision-guided bombs “of various types” were utilised.
The attacks reflect rising worldwide concern about the threat to one of the world’s most crucial rivers. For weeks, the US had attempted to avoid direct strikes on Yemen due to the risk of escalation in a region already tense from the Israel-Hamas conflict, but persistent Houthi attacks on international commerce forced the coalition to act.
Though the US has launched attacks on Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria since the start of the Gaza war, this is the first documented strike against the Houthis in Yemen.
The strikes came from fighter planes and Tomahawk missiles. According to a US official, missiles fired from air, surface, and sub platforms were used to hit Houthi targets, which were picked for their capacity to hinder the Houthis’ ongoing attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
They comprised radar systems, drone storage and launch locations, ballistic missile storage and launch sites, and cruise missile storage and launch sites.
According to a second US official, the strike on Yemen included the USS Florida, a guided missile submarine that entered into the Red Sea on November 23. According to the official, the sub launched Tomahawk land-attack missiles, as did the surface ships involved in the strike.
A senior military source told reporters on Thursday evening that he couldn’t give an exact proportion of Houthi assets destroyed in the attacks, but that it was “significant.” He went on to say that precision guided weapons were utilised to attack the objectives “and also to minimise collateral damage.”
“We did not target civilian population centres. “We were targeting very specific capabilities, in very specific locations, with precision munitions,” the official explained.
Tuesday’s attacks were the final straw.
The Houthi attacks on Red Sea ships on Tuesday were the last straw, prompting Biden to approve the US’s Thursday strikes, despite the fact that preparations had been continuing for some time, according to a senior US official.
The strikes come as Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin remains hospitalised due to complications from prostate cancer surgery. According to a senior Defence source, Austin authorised and oversaw the attacks from the hospital “with a full suite of secure communications.”
Over the last few weeks, Biden has evaluated prospective strikes on Houthi sites in Yemen against the possibility of a Middle East crisis escalation. His underlying reluctance to authorise direct action stems from the risk of being more directly involved in an escalating confrontation, which US officials think Iran’s ultimate goal is.
But the White House has made it clear that repeated Houthi strikes on international trade lines in the southern Red Sea were unacceptable. The assaults have pushed some of the world’s greatest maritime firms to bypass the canal, instead adding thousands of miles to international trade routes by circumnavigating Africa.
Hours before the strike on Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Iran “has a role to play” in convincing the Houthis to cease their “reckless, dangerous, and illegal activity.” If they didn’t, he warned, “there will be consequences.”
The Houthis, an Iran-backed Shia political and military organisation fighting a civil war in Yemen against a Saudi-backed coalition, have been launching drones and missiles at commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea for weeks, with many of them intercepted and shot down by US Navy ships in the area.
Hussein al-Ezzi, the Houthi deputy foreign minister, declared that Yemen was the subject of a “massively aggressive assault.” In a speech Thursday, Houthi leader Abdul Malek Al-Houthi warned that any US strike on Yemen “will not go unanswered,” implying that the retaliation will be “much more” than bombing US ships at sea.
According to a senior military official, the Pentagon has seen no evidence of retaliation from the Houthis as of Thursday night.
A top US administration official hinted at further action against the Houthis.
“This may not be the final word on the subject,” the senior official added. “And when we have more to say and more to do, you will hear from us.”
US warns of ‘consequences’
On Thursday, when travelling in the area, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that “if it doesn’t stop, there will be consequences.” Unfortunately, it hasn’t stopped.
Blinken also stated that he does not believe the Gaza war is developing into a regional confrontation, while warning of “a lot of danger points.” Blinken paid a visit to Bahrain, where the US Naval Forces Central Command and the Navy’s Fifth Fleet are based.
According to a senior State Department source, Blinken’s travel to the Middle East included telling regional officials that if the US takes military action against the Houthis, it should be perceived as defensive rather than escalatory.
On Wednesday, the UN Security Council voted a resolution spearheaded by the United States and Japan, denouncing “in the strongest terms the at least two dozen Houthi attacks on merchant and commercial vessels since November 19, 2023” and demanding “that the Houthis immediately cease all such attacks.” Eleven countries supported the resolution. Four abstained, including China and Russia. A Western diplomat told CNN that the US granted some of China’s wishes over the resolution’s text.
US bombings in Yemen are not unique; according to the Council on Foreign Relations, the US has carried out roughly 400 airstrikes in Yemen since 2002.
In Yemen, officials are anxious about what an attack against the Houthis might mean for the area. Declassified US data reveals that Iran was heavily involved in organising the Houthi attacks on commercial and maritime ships, including giving information about trade boats transiting through the canal.
Among the US’ concerns about taking direct action inside Yemen is the risk of upsetting a carefully negotiated truce between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, which a US official previously told CNN is one of the Biden administration’s most significant foreign policy achievements.
Concerns for a lengthy confrontation.
Some American officials believed that a frontal strike on the Houthis in Yemen would be exactly what the organisation desired: direct involvement with the Iranian proxy group, perhaps committing US soldiers to a longer-term confrontation.
However, Biden’s deterrent efforts have done little to discourage the Houthis from continuing their attacks on commercial and commerce ships traversing the Red Sea.
A watershed moment occurred around New Year’s, when US Navy helicopters fired down three Houthi boats in self-defense, killing everybody onboard. It was the US’s first direct interaction with the Houthis since the conflict began, prompting Biden to call his national security staff for a confidential briefing while on vacation in the US Virgin Islands.
That joint statement, released on January 3, stated that the Houthis “will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and the free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways.”
While not defining the statement as a red line, Biden and his team recognised that the wording would effectively bind them to a more severe reaction if the Houthi attacks continued, as many officials privately expected.
Just hours after the unified declaration was issued, the Houthis fired an unmanned surface drone towards commercial maritime channels.
On Tuesday, in one of the greatest Houthi strikes yet, three US Navy warships, Navy F/A-18s from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, and a UK destroyer, the HMS Diamond, shot down 21 missiles and drones. The attack did not damage any ships, and there were no reported injuries.
According to a senior administration source, Biden authorised his national security team to launch strikes on Houthi installations in Yemen in response to the missile bombardment. According to the official, the attack was launched directly against a US commercial vessel, which was accompanied by US military warships.
Biden authorised Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to carry out the action, resulting in the strikes on Thursday evening.
Since November 19, the Houthis have carried out at least 27 strikes. As the US and its allies deal with the Houthis’ continued attacks, there have been at least 131 attacks against US and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria since October 17, including multiple strikes on installations linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other proxy groups. Just last week, the US attacked a member of Iran’s proxy organisation Harakat al-Nujaba, whom an official claimed has “US blood on his hands” in Iraq.
However, many of the commercial boats had no link to Israel. Vice Admiral Bradley Cooper, head of US Navy Central Command, stated last week that the US believes 55 nations have “direct connections” to the ships under fire.
