WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — Houthi rebels in Yemen may have run out of supplies of drone swarms and anti-ship ballistic missiles as the pace of their attacks has slowed, the top U.S. air force commander for the Middle East said Wednesday.
Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, head of the U.S. Air Force, said the continued U.S. retaliatory strikes on the Iran-backed militia “have certainly influenced their behavior. Their pace of action is not what it used to be.”
The Houthis carry out almost daily attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, launching drones and missiles from rebel-held areas in Yemen. The attacks – which are often unsuccessful but sometimes hit ships – have disrupted a crucial shipping route.
In response, the US and its allies have been forced to expand their military vessel presence along the waterway, and on several occasions have launched broader retaliatory strikes on ammunition, weapons and other facilities. US ships and fighter jets also routinely bomb Houthi drones and missiles that are in place and preparing to be launched.
Grynkewich said it is difficult to know exactly how much the Houthis’ weapons stockpiles have been depleted by the U.S. strikes because officials did not have a detailed intelligence assessment of their capabilities before the attacks began.
“The challenge for us is to understand what the denominator was in the beginning. In other words, what did they have on hand to start with? We obviously know how many we struck and we have estimates of how successful those attacks were.” he said. “The other complicating factor is Iranian supplies.”
He said the U.S. believes the Houthis had dozens of anti-ship missiles when they launched and have launched dozens of them. So it is crucial to understand how much Iran is able to supply the group.
The Houthis have defended their campaign as an attempt to pressure Israel to end the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. However, the ships they targeted largely had little or no ties to Israel, the US or other countries involved in the war.
Grynkewich told reporters that the Houthis are more independent and harder for Iran to control than other Tehran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria. These groups have largely halted their attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since early February, when the U.S. launched a massive retaliatory strike against the groups and locations linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
U.S. officials have said they believe pressure from Iran was one of the reasons for the pause. But Grynkewich said the Houthis are “not that responsive” to the Iranian leadership.
He said that even if Iran tried to crack down on the Houthis or cut off weapons or other supplies, it would take some time for that to have an effect.