by The United States and five of its allies on Thursday carried out military strikes against more than a dozen targets in Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi militia, in an expansion of the Middle East war that the Biden administration had sought to avoid for the last three months.
The US-led air and naval strikes came in response to more than two dozen Houthi drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea since November, and after warnings to the Houthis last week by part of the Biden administration and several international allies of serious consequences if the salvos did not stop.
On Thursday night, President Biden called the attacks a “clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to jeopardize freedom of navigation on one of the most critical trade routes.” of the world”.
In a statement, he warned: “I will not hesitate to order additional measures to protect our people and the free flow of international trade as necessary.”
But the Houthis have defied previous US ultimatums and vowed to continue their attacks in what they say is a protest against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
More than 2,000 ships have been forced to divert thousands of miles to avoid the Red Sea, causing weeks of delays, Biden said. On Tuesday, American and British warships intercepted one of the largest barrages of Houthi drone and missile attacks to date, an attack that American and Western military officials said was the last straw.
Biden officials said they had telegraphed what was coming for weeks. But the attacks, they said, were aimed more at damaging Houthi capabilities and hampering the group’s ability to strike targets in the Red Sea, rather than killing Iranian leaders and trainers, which could be seen as an escalation.
The attacks hit radars, missile and drone launch sites, and weapons storage areas, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement. Pentagon officials said late Thursday that they were still evaluating whether the strikes were successful and emphasized that they had tried to avoid civilian casualties.
Thursday’s attack dragged the United States deeper into a conflict that erupted after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials. The Israeli response has so far killed more than 23,000 people in Gaza, according to health authorities there.
Some US allies in the Middle East, including Gulf nations such as Qatar and Oman, had expressed concern that attacks on the Houthis could spiral out of control and drag the region into a broader war with other Iranian proxies, such as Hezbollah. in Lebanon and Tehran. militias backed by Syria and Iraq.
But on Thursday the United States decided to act. Britain joined the United States in attacking Houthi targets as fighter jets from bases in the region and from the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower attacked targets with precision-guided bombs.
“The UK will always defend freedom of navigation and the free flow of trade,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement.
The Netherlands, Australia, Canada and Bahrain also participated, providing logistics, intelligence and other support, according to US officials. At least one Navy submarine fired Tomahawk cruise missiles, officials said.
The president described the response of the international community as “united and determined.” Bahrain was the only Arab nation to participate, and until Thursday afternoon there were doubts about whether the small kingdom would be willing to publicly acknowledge its role. In the end it was like that.
The Houthi Foreign Ministry responded to the attacks with a statement that “the United States and the United Kingdom must be prepared to pay a high price and face the serious consequences of their aggression.”
It was unclear whether the allied attacks would deter the Houthis from continuing their attacks, which have forced some of the world’s largest shipping companies to divert ships away from the Red Sea, generating delays and additional costs felt around the world. through the increase in the prices of oil and other imported goods.
The Houthis, whose military capabilities were honed during more than eight years of fighting a Saudi-led coalition, have greeted the prospect of war with the United States with open glee. On Wednesday, before the attack, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the militia leader, threatened to meet a US attack with a fierce response.
“We, the Yemeni people, are not among those who fear the United States,” he said in a televised speech. “We are comfortable with a direct confrontation with the Americans.”
Administration officials have sought to separate the Houthi attacks from the conflict in Gaza and portray as illegitimate the Houthis’ claims that they are acting to support the Palestinians. Officials are emphasizing that difference so they can try to contain a broader war even as they step up their targeted response to the Houthi attacks.
Houthi officials say the only goal of their attacks is to force Israel to stop its military campaign and allow the free flow of aid to Gaza.
For the Biden administration, the decision to finally counterattack the Houthis took three months to arrive. Despite the spate of Houthi attacks, the administration had been hesitant to respond militarily for several reasons.
There were fears that attacks on Yemen could escalate into a tit-for-tat between U.S. warships and the Houthis and even drag Iran deeper into the conflict, officials said. On Thursday, the Iranian navy seized a ship loaded with crude oil off the coast of Oman.
Biden’s top advisers had also been reluctant to feed the narrative that the Yemeni militia group had become important enough to justify US military retaliation. Several administration officials said the United States was also afraid of upsetting the fragile truce in Yemen.
The Houthis, a tribal group, have seized much of northern Yemen since they stormed the country’s capital, Sana, in 2014, effectively winning a war against the Saudi-led coalition that spent years trying to defeat them. They have built their ideology around opposition to Israel and the United States, often drawing parallels between the American-made bombs used to hit Yemen and those sent to israel and used in Gaza.
“They offer bombs to kill the Palestinian people,” al-Houthi said in his speech. “Doesn’t that provoke us? Doesn’t that increase our determination in our legitimate stance?”
Hundreds of thousands of people have died in airstrikes and fighting in Yemen, as well as from disease and hunger, since the conflict began. The truce negotiated in 2022 has largely held even without a formal agreement.
U.S. and other Western officials said the Houthis’ continued attacks left them no choice but to respond, and they will hold the Houthis responsible for the attacks.
“We are going to do everything we have to do to protect shipping in the Red Sea,” US national security spokesman John Kirby said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Biden authorized the strikes earlier in the week and Austin gave the final go-ahead Thursday from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where he is being treated for complications from prostate cancer surgery.
The administration informed top Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill on Thursday that they planned to carry out walkouts, a decision that generated bipartisan support.
The attacks came after weeks of consultations with allies. On Wednesday, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke by phone with his British counterpart, Adm. Sir Tony Radakin, to discuss the attacks, defense officials said.
Thursday night’s attacks were the largest US attack against the Houthis in nearly a decade. In 2016, the United States attacked three Houthi missile sites with Tomahawk cruise missiles after the Houthis fired on Navy and commercial ships. Houthi attacks later ceased.
The report was contributed by Vivian Nereim from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Lebanon, Farnaz Fassihi from New York and Stephen’s Castle From london.
