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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U. S. military on Saturday attacked other Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen that it said endangered shipping in the Red Sea, a day after the United States and Britain launched several airstrikes against the Houthi rebels.
Associated Press journalists in Yemen’s capital Sanaa heard a loud explosion.
US Central Command said Saturday morning local time’s “follow-up action” against a Houthi radar site was carried out using ground attack missiles from the Navy destroyer USS Carney Tomahawk.
The first day of attacks, Friday, affected 28 sites and hit more than 60 targets. President Joe Biden warned Friday that the Houthis could face further attacks.
The latest strike came after the U.S. Navy on Friday warned American-flagged vessels to steer clear of areas around Yemen in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden for the next 72 hours after the initial airstrikes. The warning came as Yemen’s Houthis vowed fierce retaliation, further raising the prospect of a wider conflict in a region already beset by Israel’s war in Gaza.
The U. S. military and White House officials have said they expect the Houthis to try to retaliate.
The U.S.-led bombardment — launched in response to a recent campaign of drone and missile attacks on commercial ships in the vital Red Sea — killed at least five people and wounded six, the Houthis said. The U.S. said the strikes, in two waves, took aim at targets in 28 different locations across Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
“We will make sure we respond to the Houthis if they continue this outrageous custom with our allies,” Biden told reporters in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
Asked if he believes the Houthis are a terrorist group, Biden responded, “I think they are.” The president in a later exchange with reporters during a stop in Allentown, Pennsylvania, said whether the Houthis are redesignated as such was “irrelevant.”
Biden also pushed back against some lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, who said he had sought congressional authorization before proceeding with the strikes.
“They’re wrong, and I sent up this morning when the strikes occurred exactly what happened,” Biden said.
Pentagon Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the military action from the hospital where he is recovering from headaches after prostate cancer surgery.
The White House said in November that it was contemplating re-designating the Houthis as a terrorist organization after they began attacking civilian ships. The directorate officially removed the Houthis from the list of “foreign terrorist organizations” and “specially designated global terrorists” in 2021, reversing a resolution through President Donald Trump.
Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday’s U. S. measures took place largely in sparsely populated spaces and that the number of other people killed would not be high. He said the measures affected weapons, radars and target sites, adding remote mountainous spaces.
As bombings lit up the predawn skies in several sites controlled by Iran-backed rebels, they forced the world to refocus on Yemen’s years-long war, which began when the Houthis seized the country’s capital.
Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea, saying they were avenging Israel’s offensive in Gaza against Hamas. But they have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for global trade and energy shipments.
Houthi army spokesman Maj. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a recorded speech that the U. S. measures “will go unanswered or go unpunished. “
While Biden’s leadership and its allies have sought for weeks to calm tensions in the Middle East and prevent a wider conflict, the moves have threatened to provoke it.
Saudi Arabia — which backs the government-in-exile the Houthis are fighting — has been quick to distance itself from the attacks as it seeks a sensible détente with Iran and a ceasefire in Yemen. In Yemen, it has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more.
It remained unclear how extensive the damage was from Friday’s strikes, though the Houthis said at least five sites, including airfields, had been attacked. The White House said the U.S. military was still assessing the extent the militants’ capabilities might have been degraded.
The U. S. Air Force’s Central CommandThe U. S. military said the moves were aimed at Houthi command and nodes, ammunition depots, launch systems, production facilities and air defense radar systems. The moves concerned more than 150 precision-guided munitions, adding F/A air-launched missiles. -18 Super Hornets founded on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Tomahawk missiles from the Navy destroyers USS Gravely and USS Mason, the Navy cruiser USS Philippine. Sea, and a U. S. submarine.
The UK said the measures affected a site in Bani that the Houthis allegedly used to launch drones and an airfield at Abbs used to launch cruise missiles and drones.
In development, Iran released footage of its seizure of an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman that was once at the center of a dispute between Tehran and Washington.
In the footage, a helicopter hovers over the deck of the St. Nikolas. Iran’s navy seized the vessel Thursday. The vessel had been known earlier as the Suez Rajan. The U.S. seized 1 million barrels of sanctioned Iranian oil off the vessel last year.
In Yemen, Hussein al-Ezzi, a Houthi official in their Foreign Ministry, said, “America and Britain will undoubtedly have to prepare to pay a heavy price and bear all the dire consequences of this blatant aggression.”
The direction of the Red Sea is a waterway and the attacks taking place there have caused serious disruptions to world trade. Benchmark Brent crude traded 4% higher on Friday at more than $80 a barrel. Meanwhile, Tesla has announced that it will temporarily halt maximum production at its German factory due to the attacks in the Red Sea.
In Saada, a Houthi stronghold in northwestern Yemen, many other people gathered Friday for a demonstration denouncing the United States and Israel. Another drew thousands of people to Sana’a, the capital.
Houthis now control territory that is home to some two-thirds of Yemen’s population of 34 million. War and misgovernment have made Yemen one of the poorest countries in the Arab world, and the World Food Program considers the vast majority of Yemen’s people as food-insecure.
Yemen has been the target of U. S. military action for the past four U. S. presidencies. During George W. Bush’s presidency, a crusade of drone moves to target al Qaeda’s local partner began, attacks that have continued under the Biden administration. has introduced raids and other military operations amid the ongoing war in Yemen.
This war began when the Houthis invaded Sana’a in 2014. A Saudi-led coalition, joined by the United Arab Emirates, introduced a war to prop up Yemen’s government-in-exile in 2015, temporarily turning the clash into a regional confrontation as Iran subsidized the Houthis with weapons and other means.
However, the fighting has slowed as the Houthis maintain their control over the territory they control. In March, Saudi Arabia reached a China-brokered deal to revive relations with Iran in the hope of nonetheless fleeing the war.
Iran condemned Friday’s attack through Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani. “Arbitrary attacks will only serve to fuel a lack of trust and instability in the region,” he said.
At an emergency assembly of the U. N. Security Council on Friday night, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States, the United Kingdom and their allies of “flagrant armed aggression” against Yemen and warned that “if the escalation continues, the entire Middle East may simply face catastrophe. “
U. S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield and British Ambassador Barbara Woodward insisted the attacks were acts of self-defense. “So there has to be a de-escalation,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “This will have to be done through the Houthis, who are putting all our shipping lines at risk. “