WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Britain struck 36 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in a second wave of strikes aimed at targeting Iranian-backed groups that have ruthlessly attacked U.S. and international interests in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas, to further eliminate it. But Washington again did not directly target Iran as the country tries to strike a balance between a strong response and intensifying the conflict.
The latest attacks on the Houthis were launched by American warships and American and British fighter jets. The strikes follow an airstrike in Iraq and Syria on Friday that targeted other Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three US troops in Jordan last weekend.
The Houthi targets were located in 13 different locations and were hit by American F/A-18 fighter jets from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, by British Typhoon FGR4 fighter jets and by the destroyers USS Gravely and USS Carney firing Tomahawk missiles . from the Red Sea, according to US officials and the British Ministry of Defense. The U.S. officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the military operation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The US warned that its response to the deaths of soldiers at Jordan’s Tower 22 base on Sunday would not be limited to one night, one target or one group. While there is no suggestion the Houthis were directly responsible, they have been one of the main US adversaries since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages. The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said more than 26,000 people have been killed and more than 64,400 injured in the Israeli military operation since the start of the war.
The Houthis carry out missile or drone attacks on commercial and military vessels transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden almost daily and have made clear they have no plans to scale back their campaign despite pressure from the American and British campaign.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi official, said that “military operations against Israel will continue until the crimes of genocide in Gaza are stopped and the siege on its inhabitants is lifted, regardless of the sacrifices it costs us.” He wrote online that “US-British aggression against Yemen will not go unanswered, and we will see escalation upon escalation.”
The Biden administration has indicated that this is unlikely to be the last of its strikes. The US has blamed the attack in Jordan on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias. Iran has tried to distance itself from the drone strike, saying the militias act independently of their leadership.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the military action, with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand, “sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to face further consequences if they do.” doing. not stop their illegal attacks on international shipping and naval vessels.”
He added: “We will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways.”
The Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted sites linked to the Houthis’ deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems, radars and helicopters. The British military said it had struck a ground control station west of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, used to monitor Houthi drones launched against ships in the Red Sea.
President Joe Biden was briefed on the strikes before leaving Delaware on Saturday for a campaign trip to the West Coast, according to an administration official.
The latest attacks marked the third time the US and Britain had carried out a major joint operation to target Houthi weapon launchers, radar sites and drones. The attacks in Yemen are intended to underscore the broader message to Iran that Washington holds Tehran responsible for arming, financing and training its array of militias – from Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen – who are behind attacks in the Middle East against American and international interests.
Video shared online by people in Sanaa contained the sound of explosions and at least one blast was seen lighting up the night sky. Residents described the explosions as occurring around buildings linked to the Yemeni presidential complex. The Houthi-controlled state news agency SABA reported strikes in al-Bayda, Dhamar, Hajjah, Hodeida, Taiz and Sanaa provinces.
Hours before the latest joint operation, the US carried out another self-defense strike on a site in Yemen, destroying six anti-ship cruise missiles, as it has done repeatedly when it has detected a missile or drone ready to launch. The day before the attack, the US destroyer Laboon and Eisenhower F/A-18s shot down seven drones fired into the Red Sea from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, and the destroyer Carney shot down a drone fired in the Gulf of Aden and the US. forces took out four more drones ready to launch.
The Houthis’ attacks have led shipping companies to divert their ships from the Red Sea and send 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 as they navigate the critical waterway running from the Suez Canal to the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb . .
During normal operations, approximately 400 commercial vessels transit the southern Red Sea at any time.
In the wake of Friday’s attacks in Iraq and Syria, Hussein al-Mosawi, spokesman for Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the main Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, said Washington “must understand that every action provokes a reaction.” But in an AP interview in Baghdad, he also struck a more conciliatory tone. “We do not want to escalate or increase regional tensions,” he said.
Iraqi officials have sought to rein in the militias, while also condemning U.S. retaliatory strikes as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and calling for the departure of the 2,500 U.S. troops in the country as part of an international coalition to destroy the Islamic State. State to fight. Last month, Iraqi and U.S. military officials launched formal talks to phase out the coalition’s presence, a process that will likely take years.
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Associated Press writers Ahmed al-Haj in Sanaa, Yemen, Abdulrahman Zeyad and Ali Jabar in Baghdad, Abby Sewell and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Jon Gambrell in Jerusalem and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
