USS EISENHOWER IN RED SEA – The United States and Great Britain launched airstrikes targeting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Saturday in response to the group’s continued attacks in the Red Sea.
The statement said that the US and Great Britain hit 36 Houthi targets in 13 locations in Yemen using missiles fired from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
More than two dozen aircraft were also launched from the ship, some carrying 2,000-pound bombs, side-to-side air-to-air missiles and other precision-guided missiles, according to a US official.
There is no clear information on whether there were any dead or injured during the strikes.
The joint statement said Saturday’s strikes “targeted facilities associated with the Houthis’ deeply buried weapons caches, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems and radars.”
The statement added that the “precision strikes” were aimed at “disrupting and weakening the capabilities” the Houthis use to attack ships in the Red Sea and threaten global trade and innocent sailors manning the ships.
The strikes are “in response to a series of illegal, dangerous and destabilizing Houthi actions since previous coalition strikes on January 11 and 22, 2024, including the January 27 attack that shot down and burned the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker M/V. Marlin Luanda”, the information says.
Following the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel and Israel’s ongoing retaliatory attack on the Gaza Strip, Houthi forces operating in Yemen have repeatedly attacked merchant ships using drones and missiles in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ Ansarullah political bureau, said that the group’s attacks “will continue until the aggression against Gaza stops.”
“We will meet the escalation with tension and victory is only from God,” he said.
A senior administration official said Saturday’s strikes were unrelated to that Friday. The strikes on Friday targeted 85 facilities in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian forces and Iran-backed militants, the first US response to the attack. the killing of three American soldiers last weekend in JordanUS officials said.
“Our response started today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing,” President Joe Biden said in a statement Friday. “The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere in the world. But let all those who seek to harm us know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.”
The Biden administration has made clear that the United States will respond militarily after Iran-backed militants attacked a remote US base in Jordan with a drone that killed three people and wounded more than 40 others.
Iran has denied participation in this drone attack, saying it does not want war with the United States, but has promised to respond to any threat from the United States.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said there would be “multiple responses” ahead of any US strikes. Officials told NBC News that Biden has settled on a plan that will take days, if not weeks, to implement.
This is an increase in Washington’s pressure in the Middle East to curb attacks by these Iranian-backed militants and prevent the spread of an all-out war in the region.
Even after Friday’s first day of strikes, Biden and Austin insisted the United States was not interested in starting a war with Iran or escalating an already growing Middle East conflict.
“We will continue to work to prevent a broader conflict in the region, but we will take all necessary measures to defend the United States, our interests and our people,” Austin told reporters at a Pentagon news conference on Thursday.
He made similar comments on Friday, adding that “the president and I will not tolerate attacks on American forces.”
In a joint statement released on Saturday, the US and UK cited “more than 30 attacks on merchant ships and naval vessels since mid-November” by the Houthis, adding that the attacks “constitute an international call”.
“We are committed to protecting freedom of navigation and international trade and holding the Houthis accountable for their unlawful and unjustified attacks on commercial and naval vessels,” the statement said. “Our goal is to de-escalate and restore stability in the Red Sea, but let us reiterate our warning to the Houthi leadership: we will not hesitate to continue to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways. faces constant threats”.