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The U.S. carried out a new round of strikes in Yemen, a day after U.S.-led forces launched naval and air attacks on at least 28 targets controlled by the Houthi rebels.
On Saturday morning Yemen time, the U.S. struck a Houthi-controlled radar site as part of an effort “designed to degrade the Houthis’ ability to attack maritime vessels, including commercial vessels” in the Red Sea, said U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels responded defiantly to Friday’s strikes, saying that the attacks had failed to cause significant damage and that they remained undeterred from launching more attacks on U.S. and international targets in the region.
The strikes—and fresh promises of retaliation—are the latest signs that conflict stemming from the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is widening across the Middle East, with the Red Sea as a new flashpoint between Washington and the various Iran-backed groups arrayed across the region.
“All American and British interests have become legitimate targets for the Yemeni armed forces in response to the aggression,” said a statement from the Supreme Political Council of the Houthis, which controls the capital, San’a, and swaths of territory.
A Houthi spokesman, Mohammed Abdul Salam, said more attacks in the Red Sea were imminent: “This isn’t going to deter us.” The attacks, primarily on shipping lanes, would continue in solidarity with Gaza following Israel’s invasion, he added.
By Friday evening, a Panama-flagged ship said a missile had splashed into the Gulf of Aden about 400 to 500 yards from its location, around 90 miles southeast of Aden, a port city in southern Yemen. The ship also reported seeing three small boats pursuing it. A Houthi official said he couldn’t confirm the missile but said his group had begun its response to the American-British strikes.
The strikes, conducted by U.S. and British forces and supported by Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands, targeted radar and air-defense systems as well as storage and launch sites for the Houthis’ cruise and ballistic missiles, according to U.S. Central Command.
The Houthis have used their arsenal, with the assistance of Iranian intelligence, to launch successive attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes.
The U.S. and U.K. launched 150 munitions, Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, the director of operations for the Joint Staff, said Friday. Since the U.S.-led coalition attack, the Houthis have fired one antiship ballistic missile but didn’t hit anything, Sims said. The strikes hit 28 locations, officials said.
“My guess is that the Houthis are trying to figure things out on the ground and trying to determine what capabilities still exist for them,” Sims said. “I would expect that they will attempt some sort of retaliation.”
A battlefield assessment by the U.S. will likely take days, as the U.S. doesn’t have troops or assets in Yemen as it does in Iraq and Syria. “The assessment is ongoing, but initial indications are that our strikes had good effects,” said Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman.
The Houthis said the U.S.-led forces had conducted 73 strikes that killed five and injured six militants, but that damage to their infrastructure was limited, as much had been relocated, fortified and stored underground ahead of the strikes, which had been telegraphed days in advance.
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