U.S. forces conducted a new strike in Yemen on Thursday afternoon, destroying a pair of suspected Houthi anti-ship missiles believed to be aimed at Red Sea shipping lanes.
“As part of ongoing multi-national efforts to protect freedom of navigation and prevent attacks on maritime vessels in the Red Sea, on Jan. 18 U.S. Central Command forces conducted strikes on two Houthi anti-ship missiles that were aimed into the Southern Red Sea and were prepared to launch,” the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Thursday.
CENTCOM, the military component overseeing U.S. operations throughout the Middle East, said U.S. forces identified the pair of missiles in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen at around 3:40 p.m. local time on Thursday. CENTCOM said the missiles posed a threat to merchant ships as well as U.S. warships operating in the nearby waterways and described the strike on Yemeni soil as an act of self-defense.
The Thursday strike marks the fifth time that U.S. forces have struck targets in Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen.
The five sets of U.S. strikes on Yemen have all occurred within the last week, and have come in response to Houthi drone and missile attacks targeting shipping throughout the Red Sea and adjoining Gulf of Aden.
Thursday’s strike came less than a day after U.S. forces struck 14 suspected missiles in Yemen that CENTCOM reported appeared to be mounted on rails and prepared to launch. The three previous strikes in Yemen saw U.S. warships and aircraft target suspected Houthi radar and air defense systems, as well as storage and launch sites for one-way attack drones and missiles. The first set of strikes on Yemen took place on Jan. 12, and saw a British warship join in the effort to degrade the Houthi offensive capabilities.
The Houthis, an Islamist group also known as Ansar Allah, are a Zaydi Shiite movement that has intermittently fought with Yemen’s internationally recognized government since 2004. While the Yemeni conflict has waned in recent months with moves toward a ceasefire in the country, the Houthis have turned their attention to the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group, launching missile and drone attacks intended to undermine the Israeli side. The Houthis have said their attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are intended to target vessels that they believe are connected to the Israeli side.
The United States and its allies had warned the Houthi forces for weeks to discontinue their attacks, as they continue to launch drone and missile attacks on the crucial global shipping chokepoint in the Red Sea even after the United States has moved from warnings to military strikes over the past week.
Yahya Saree, a spokesman for the Houthis’ military arm, claimed that Houthi missiles successfully struck a U.S.-owned bulk carrier ship called the Genco Picardy on Wednesday.
The shipping operator, Genco, confirmed the attack and said the vessel was hit by a projectile while it was transiting through the Gulf of Aden with a cargo of phosphate rock. Genco said there were no injuries to the crew and the ship suffered limited damage to its gangway and was on a course out of the area.
In a translated social media post, Mr. Saree said the Yemeni rebels “will not hestitate” to launch attacks in the Red Sea. The spokesman said a Houthi response to U.S. and British strikes is also forthcoming and that the Yemeni rebel movement will continue to retaliate when they are targeted.
This week, President Joe Biden’s administration announced the re-designation of the Houthis as a terrorist organization.
President Donald Trump’s administration originally designated the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity in the final days of his presidential term. President Biden rescinded those Trump-era designations less than a month after taking office.
On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced it would reapply the SDGT label against the Houthis, allowing the United States to reapply some sanctions against the Houthis, but not the full range that had previously been available under the Trump administration.
U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the decision to only apply the SDGT label and not the FTO label against the Houthis was done to avoid the possibility of U.S. sanctions disrupting international humanitarian relief efforts for war-torn Yemen.
The U.S. government has long suspected the Iranian Islamic regime of supplying and funding the Houthis along with Hamas. The Iranian side has cheered the recent Houthi attacks but has previously denied arming the group or helping it plan its attacks.
Reuters contributed to this article.