The Biden administration is poised to redesignate the Houthi rebel militia as a foreign terrorist organization as tensions continue to escalate off the coast of Yemen and the threat of a full-scale war breaking out in the Middle East grows, according to multiple reports.
Sources familiar with the matter confirmed the expected move first to the Associated Press on Tuesday, with CNN and The Wall Street Journal following closely behind. The reports were published hours after the Iran-backed group attacked another merchant vessel traversing the Red Sea, which reported that it had been struck but remained seaworthy, according to U.S. Central Command. No injuries were reported.
The strike appeared to be a signal by the Houthis that a series of military actions the U.S. had carried out earlier in the day would not be a deterrent. Characterized by Central Command as preemptive strikes, the attacks hit four ballistic missiles that posed an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and commercial vessels in the area. All four missiles were destroyed around 4:15 a.m. local time, the command said.
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The new round of strikes—at least the third time in the last week that the U.S. has targeted the Houthis—was first reported by Reuters. The wire reported it appeared to show that the U.S. military was prepared to “proactively go after” Houthi targets as they were detected, rather than biding its time for a pre-planned operation to be put in place.
The first strike was carried out by the U.S. and the United Kingdom on Thursday night, hitting dozens of targets associated with Houthi military capabilities. A second night of strikes, this time retaliatory, was launched by the U.S. after the Houthis fired a missile at a commercial ship on Friday.
The Houthis have since continued to defy an international ultimatum that they cease targeting ships in the Red Sea, attacking a Greek-owned cargo vessel on Tuesday. The day prior, the militants had damaged a U.S.-owned and operated container ship. No injuries were reported and the ship continued its journey.
“We’re not looking for a war; we’re not looking to expand this,” National Security Council spokesman John F. Kirby told reporters on Tuesday. He added, “We will continue to defend against them and counter them as appropriate.”
While more than 150 precision-guided munitions were fired at Houthi sites last week alone, defense estimates have reportedly been glum, with a U.S. official telling CNN on Monday that the strikes had taken out less than a third of the group’s offensive capabilities. The New York Times later reported that the Houthis had retained about three-quarters of their capabilities, though the strikes did damage or destroy about 90 percent of the 60 targets that were struck.
U.S. Central Command also announced on Tuesday that the U.S. Navy had seized Iranian-made ballistic missile warheads and related components aboard a boat heading for Houthi forces in Yemen. Two U.S. Navy SEALs are believed lost at sea after the Thursday mission, it was previously reported, with the command adding this week that an “exhaustive search” was underway for the two men.
Both were “directly involved” in the risky operation, which continued after one of them fell into the water and the second jumped in after his teammate, as protocol dictates.
