WASHINGTON — The US and Britain struck more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday, responding to a recent wave of attacks by the Iran-backed militia group on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, including a missile strike from the last week that caused a fire. to a freighter.
U.S. and British fighter jets struck about 18 sites in multiple locations, targeting missiles, launchers, rockets, drones and unmanned surface and underwater vehicles, according to U.S. officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details about an ongoing military operation as early as possible.
This is the fourth time that US and British forces have conducted a combined operation against the Houthis since January 12. But the US also carries out near-daily strikes to take out Houthi targets, including incoming missiles and drones aimed at ships. as well as weapons ready to launch.
The US fighter jets were launched from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which is currently in the Red Sea.
President Joe Biden and other senior leaders have repeatedly warned that the US will not tolerate Houthi attacks on commercial shipping. But the counterattacks do not appear to diminish the Houthis’ campaign against shipping in the region, which the militants say is a response to Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The group has carried out at least 57 attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November 19, and the pace has increased in recent days.
“We have certainly seen an increase in the number of attacks from the Houthis over the last 48 to 72 hours,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in a briefing Thursday. And she acknowledged that the Houthis have not been deterred.
“We never said we wiped out all their capabilities,” she told reporters. “We know that the Houthis have a large arsenal. They are very capable. They have advanced weapons, and that’s because they keep getting them from Iran.”
There have been at least 32 US strikes in Yemen in the past month and a half; a few were executed with Allied involvement. In addition, U.S. warships disabled dozens of incoming missiles, rockets and drones targeting commercial and other Navy vessels.
Earlier Saturday, the destroyer USS Mason shot down an anti-ship ballistic missile launched from Houthi-held areas in Yemen toward the Gulf of Aden, the US Central Command said, adding that the missile likely targeted MV Torm Thor, an under American flagged ship owned by the United States Navy. , and operated chemical and oil tanker.
The US strikes on the Houthis targeted more than 120 launchers, more than 10 surface-to-air missiles, 40 storage and support buildings, 15 drone storage buildings, more than 20 unmanned aerial, surface and underwater vehicles, several underground storage areas and several more other facilities.
The rebels’ supreme leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, announced last week an “escalation of naval operations” carried out by his forces as part of what they described as a pressure campaign to end Israel’s war against Hamas.
But while the group says the attacks are aimed at stopping that war, the Houthis’ targets have become more indiscriminate, endangering a vital waterway for cargo and energy shipments traveling from Asia and the Middle East to Europe.
During normal operations, approximately 400 commercial vessels transit the southern Red Sea at any time. Although the Houthi attacks have actually hit only a small number of ships, the continued attacks and near misses shot down by the US and allies have prompted shipping companies to divert their ships from the Red Sea.
Instead, they sent them around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope – a much longer, more expensive and less efficient passage. The threats have also prompted the US and its allies to set up a joint mission in which warships from participating countries provide a protective umbrella of air defense for ships traveling between the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
In Thursday’s attack in the Gulf of Aden, the Houthis fired two missiles at a Palau-flagged cargo ship called Islander, the Central Command said. A European naval force in the region said the attack caused a fire and injured a sailor aboard the ship, although the ship continued on its way.
The Central Command launched strikes on Houthi-held areas in Yemen on Friday, destroying seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles that the military said it was preparing to launch towards the Red Sea.
The Central Command also said Saturday that a Houthi attack on a Belize-flagged ship on Feb. 18 left an oil slick spanning 18 miles. The military warned of the danger of leakage of the ship’s fertilizer cargo. The Rubymar, a British-registered, Lebanese-operated cargo ship, was attacked as it transited the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that links the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The missile attack forced the crew to abandon the ship, which was headed to Bulgaria after leaving Khorfakkan in the United Arab Emirates. It carried more than 41,000 tons of fertilizer, according to a statement from the Central Command.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday, citing Planet Labs PBC satellite images of the stricken ship, that the ship was leaking oil into the Red Sea.
Yemen’s internationally recognized government on Saturday called on other countries and maritime protection organizations to quickly tackle the oil spill and prevent “a significant environmental disaster.”
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Associated Press writer Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.