U.S. forces launched strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Saturday, in response to continued Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
U.S. Central Command said in a statement that forces “conducted strikes against 36 Houthi targets at 13 locations in Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen,” alongside U.K. Armed Forces, and supported by Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. Saturday’s strike was the third time that U.S. and U.K. forces launched a joint attack against Houthi rebels this year — the first two were on January 11 and 23.
“These multilateral coalition strikes focused on targets in Houthi-controlled Yemen used to attack international merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region,” U.S. Central Command said. “These Iranian-backed Houthi targets included multiple underground storage facilities, command and control, missile systems, UAV storage and operations sites, radars, and helicopters.”
Houthi rebels have attacked numerous vessels in the Red Sea since November. U.S. and U.K. forces have warned Houthis to stop the attacks, which have disrupted a critical commercial trade route for thousands of ships.
“This collective action sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks on international shipping and naval vessels,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said. “We will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways.”
Houthi spokesman Yahya Sarea said that America’s latest attacks “will not pass without a response and consequences.”
The Yemen strikes come one day after the U.S. targeted more than 85 facilities tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force and Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria, in response to a drone attack that killed three U.S. servicemen, and wounded about 40, in Jordan last weekend. U.S. intelligence attributed the drone attack to the Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
Russia and Iraq in turn have called for an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting to address U.S. strikes against Iranian proxies. There is “no justification” for the strikes in Iraq and Syria and U.S. airstrikes are “intended to escalate the conflict” in the Middle East, Russian foreign ministry official Maria Zakharova said this weekend.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has been clear that the White House is “not looking for a war with Iran,” and that the U.S. and her allies will fight for a “stable, secure, prosperous Middle East,” he said on NBC’s Today last week. President Joe Biden added on Friday that attacks on American forces will be met with a response.