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U.S. and British forces, with support from partner nations, launched a fresh round of air and missile strikes on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen in retaliation for the group’s continued attacks on international shipping, the Pentagon announced Saturday.
The latest strikes — the third of their kind since Jan. 11 — came a day after U.S. long-range aircraft bombarded Iranian military and proxy targets in Iraq and Syria, the first of multiple expected rounds of retaliation for Sunday’s deadly drone attack on U.S. troops in Jordan.
The U.S. military is now ratcheting up its intensity on two fronts in the Middle East — attacking Iran-supported Houthi rebels in Yemen in retaliation for missile and drone launches against commercial shipping in the Red Sea while also assaulting Iranian proxies in response to the more than 160 strikes on U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and now Jordan.
Saturday’s multinational strike on the Houthis is “unrelated” to the administration’s response to the Jordan attack, according to one senior administration official, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive plans.
U.S. and British forces, supported by Australia, Bahrain, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand, on Saturday hit 36 Houthi targets across 13 locations in Yemen, according to a Pentagon statement. The strikes specifically targeted sites associated with the Houthis’ underground weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems, and radars, the Pentagon said.
“These precision strikes are intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities that the Houthis use to threaten global trade, and the lives of innocent mariners, and are in response to a series of illegal, dangerous, and destabilizing Houthi actions since previous coalition strikes on January 11 and 22, 2024,” according to the statement, citing a Jan. 27 attack that struck and set fire to the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker M/V Marlin Luanda.
The strikes were launched from air, sea and subsurface platforms, a second U.S. official said.
The Houthis have now launched more than 30 attacks on commercial and naval vessels since mid-November, according to the Pentagon statement.
“Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea but let us reiterate our warning to 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 in the face of continued threats,” according to the statement.
The actions taken by President Joe Biden have been carefully calibrated to avoid provoking a war with Iran. Instead of targeting Iranian military leadership, Friday’s strikes focused on logistical facilities, weapons storage sites and command centers. Still, by striking the Quds Force, a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Biden is sending a stronger message to Tehran.
Iran’s response to the Friday bombing assault was calculated.
“The attack last night on Syria and Iraq is an adventurous action and another strategic mistake by the American government which will have no result other than increasing tensions and destabilizing the region,” Nasser Kanaani, the foreign ministry spokesman, said Saturday.
The governments of Syria and Iraq condemned Friday’s bombing runs, saying they would hurt the ability to fight Islamic State terrorists.
