U.S. forces late Friday struck another target in Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels, a day after American and British troops launched a massive assault on the Iran-backed group that for months has wreaked havoc on commercial shipping traffic in the Red Sea.
U.S. Central Command said that the latest strike, carried out using Tomahawk missiles, targeted a Houthi radar site believed to represent a threat to maritime traffic in the area. AP journalists on the ground in Yemen‘s capital, Sanaa, reported hearing an explosion. Ahead of the strikes, the Navy warned ships to avoid areas around Yemen in the Red Sea.
Just a few hours before the strike, President Biden warned that the Houthis could face additional strikes.
“If they continue to act and behave as they do, we’ll respond,” the president told reporters Friday while traveling in Pennsylvania.
Friday night’s strike comes after the major U.S. and British joint attacks on Houthi targets Thursday. During those attacks, U.S. and British troops bombed 28 separate locations and destroyed more than 60 individual Houthi targets.
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon earlier Friday, Army Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims II, director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that U.S. and British warplanes conducted two separate rounds of strikes within 30 to 60 minutes of each other. The first round of attacks on Thursday hit 16 locations in Yemen, each of which the Pentagon said was home to Houthi military assets that the Iran-backed group had been using for the past several months to target commercial shipping traffic in the Red Sea.
“Immediately following those strikes, there were 12 other locations that had been identified as possessing articles that could be potentially used against forces, maritime and air. Those areas were subsequently struck,” Gen. Sims said.
In total, 150 munitions were used, including Tomahawk missiles. Officials could not provide an exact number of targets destroyed, but said the total is over 60. At various locations, officials said, there were several different individual targets, such as missile launchers or buildings that each housed attack drones.
It’s unclear how many Houthi fighters were killed, though officials said they believe the strikes succeeded in greatly degrading the Houthis’ ability to disrupt maritime traffic in the Red Sea.
“We feel very confident about where our munitions struck, but we don’t know at this point the complete battle damage assessment,” Gen. Sims said. “This was solely designed to get after the capability that is impeding international freedom of navigation in international waters. We feel pretty confident we did good work on that.”
In a statement Thursday night, Mr. Biden stressed that the U.S. and its allies first tried an “extensive diplomatic campaign” to stop the Houthi attacks, though it became clear that campaign wasn’t successful and that military action was the only option.
“These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes,” Mr. Biden said. “I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.”
Many congressional Republicans have praised the decision to retaliate against the Houthis, but criticized the White House for not acting earlier, as many major shipping lines have said they have acted in support of the Palestinians in their war with Israel in Gaza, though many of the internationally flagged ships targeted seemingly had no connection to Jerusalem.
Prior to Thursday night’s airstrikes, the Houthis had launched at least 26 attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes in the last two months alone. Earlier this week, the Iran-backed rebel group launched a massive drone-and-missile barrage that was intercepted by American and British forces.
In other attacks, Houthi drones have struck commercial vessels sailing in the Red Sea. In one instance, the U.S. Navy engaged in a firefight with Houthi rebels aboard small boats, reportedly killing nearly a dozen Houthi fighters.
And just last Thursday, a drone boat packed with explosives detonated within miles of U.S. warships and commercial vessels off the coast of Yemen — just hours after the U.S. and its allies issued their “final warning” and warned that retaliation was on the horizon.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a recorded message Friday that five of the Yemeni group’s fighters were killed and six injured in the Friday evening salvos, a claim that could not be independently confirmed. The general warned in the audio message that the attacks would “not go unanswered or unpunished,” the AP reported.
• This article is based in part on wire-service reports.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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