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American warplanes launched a new round of airstrikes against multiple targets in Yemen controlled by Houthi extremists, U.S. President Donald Trump announced Saturday.
The strikes are aimed at destroying “terrorists’ bases, leaders, and missile defenses,” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social, and are meant to “protect American shipping, air, and naval assets, and to restore Navigational Freedom.”
The Iranian-backed Houthi militants have targeted commercial and military shipping in the Red Sea for the past two years, virtually shutting down the waterway critical to commercial trade.
The attacks represent the largest foreign military action taken by the administration to date, and come amid new strikes in recent days targeting Islamic State leadership in Syria.
The U.S. strikes come after the White House has loosened Biden-era restrictions on military commanders in conducting airstrikes on militant targets. Commanders in the Middle East and Africa now can take strikes where they see fit, without asking the White House to approve them.
One official, granted anonymity to discuss internal discussions, said the uptick in strikes in Somalia in recent weeks targeting al-Shabab militants, and strikes in Syria against Islamic State leaders, are the result of the new policy, adding there will be more strikes in the region to come as the military sees new opportunities to hit militant leaders.
The Biden administration also targeted the Houthis with air and missile strikes after the group, which controls a large swath of Yemen, began targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
The Houthis then claimed they were targeting Israeli shipping, though in reality they launched Iranian-made missiles and drones at any ship that transited the critical commercial waterway.
