The United States led a joint coalition strike against multiple Houthi targets in Yemen, retaliating against the Iran-backed militants after they ignored warnings to stop attacking international commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
The strikes were carried out by fighter jets and Tomahawk missiles fired from air, surface, and sub platforms, according to CNN.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who has been in the hospital since Jan. 1 due to complications following a surgery to remove prostate cancer, said the strikes were meant to degrade Houthi capabilities.
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“The United States maintains its right to self-defense and, if necessary, we will take follow-on actions to protect U.S. forces,” Austin said in a statement.
“Today’s coalition action sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will bear further costs if they do not end their illegal attacks.”
Among the sites targeted include a location northwest Yemen called Bani, which was used to launch reconnaissance and attack drones, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence said. Another site hit was an airfield at Abbs, which intelligence showed was used to launch cruise missiles and drones over the Red Sea, according to the ministry.
At least three explosions were heard in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, The Telegraph reported, citing witnesses. The results of the attacks were still being assessed late Thursday, but early indications were that the Houthis’ “ability to threaten merchant shipping” had “taken a blow,” U.K. authorities said.
“This is a brutal aggression,” Nasr al-Din Amir, a Houthi official, told The Wall Street Journal. “They will undoubtedly pay its price, and we will not waver in our stance to support the Palestinian people, regardless of the cost.”
Under mounting pressure to respond to the Houthi attacks in the southern Red Sea, the Biden administration has dragged its feet in recent weeks, seemingly reluctant to escalate tensions in a region held together by a fragile ceasefire between the group and a Saudi Arabia-led coalition.
Instead, the White House had feinted around the Houthis, targeting other Iranian proxies that have attacked U.S. forces in the Middle East amid the Israel-Hamas war. Earlier this month, the U.S. carried out an airstrike in Baghdad that killed an Iran-backed militia leader known as “Abu Taqwa.”
But an ultimatum was issued to the Houthis earlier this week in the form of a joint statement by the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, and Singapore.
“Let our message now be clear: we call for the immediate end of these illegal attacks and release of unlawfully detained vessels and crews,” the statement said.
“The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways.”
Hours before the strike, a Pentagon spokesperson again threatened that there would be “consequences” if the Houthis did not cease their “reckless, dangerous, and illegal activity.”
The Houthis, however, have said they will continue their attacks until Israel stops its war against Hamas. The militia pledged it would back Hamas in the wake of its Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, launching its attacks in the Red Sea shortly after.
An Israeli official told Axios that Tel Aviv had been notified in advance of Thursday’s strikes. Israel remains on high alert for a retaliation by the Houthis or other Iran-backed proxies—but a senior U.S. military official said the Pentagon is not seeing any retaliatory action from the Houthis so far.
“As of yet we have not seen any direct retaliatory action directed towards our U.S. or other coalition members in the Red Sea,” the senior official told reporters. “We remain prepared, of course, to defend ourselves. But we have not seen a response from the Houthis at this time.”
President Joe Biden said in a statement on Thursday night that U.S. had “successfully conducted” its strikes in partnership with the U.K. and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands.
“These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea—including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history,” he said, noting that more than 50 nations had been threatened in 27 attacks since mid-November.
The 27th attack was unleashed early Friday morning Sanaa time, after the ultimatum was issued, with the Houthis launching an anti-ship ballistic missile into international shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden, according to American authorities.
It remains unclear if the missile represented the coalition’s ultimate breaking point, but hours later U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reportedly gathered his full cabinet to discuss potential strikes. Other senior officials, including Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Shadow Defense Secretary John Healey, were briefed afterwards, according to BBC News.
In a statement released at the same time as Biden’s, Sunak confirmed that that the Royal Air Force participated in the strikes, which he termed “limited, necessary and proportionate action in self-defence.”
The prime minister urged the Houthis to cease their attacks and “take steps” to de-escalate tensions. “This cannot stand,” he added.
Questions remain over whether the Thursday strikes will enflame tensions and lead to further escalation in the region.
