New Delhi: The US launched new strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on Friday night (local time), a US official told CNN. The strikes hit a radar site used by the rebels, who have been attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The official said the strikes were more limited than the previous ones, which targeted about 30 Houthi locations on Thursday.
The US and UK, with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands, carried out the Thursday strikes to stop the Houthis from disrupting international trade lanes. Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims II, Director of the Joint Staff, said the Houthis had fired at least one anti-ship ballistic missile at a commercial ship earlier on Friday, CNN reported.
The US acted on its own in the latest strike, the official said. The US also warned that it would take more military action if the Houthis continued their “outrageous behavior” along with their allies, CNN reported. US President Joe Biden said on Friday in Pennsylvania that the US would respond to the Houthis, who have been escalating their attacks recently.
However, the rebels, who are backed by Iran, fired another anti-ship ballistic missile at a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden, south of Yemen, after the US-led strikes. It was unclear if the US strikes were a reaction to the missile launch or a follow-up to the earlier attacks.
The US President said in a statement on Thursday that the US and its partners conducted the strikes against the Houthis, who had “launched their largest attack to date–directly targeting American ships” on January 9. He said the rebels had used anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history, endangering US personnel, civilian mariners, and their partners, and threatening trade and freedom of navigation.
The Houthis have said they are retaliating for Israel’s Gaza conflict, which started on October 7, when thousands of Hamas terrorists killed scores of Israelis. The Houthis have fired several drone and missile attacks at Israel, most of which were intercepted.