US launches new airstrike on Houthi target in Yemen

The US has launched a fresh airstrike on a Houthi rebel radar installation, a move described as a follow-up attack to Friday’s barrage across Yemen intended to degrade the rebel group’s ability to target commercial ships in the Red Sea.

The destroyer USS Carney fired Tomahawk cruise missiles at the radar facility, US Central Command said in a statement.

Unlike the previous operation, in which the UK took part with support from several other nations including Australia, this one was conducted solely by the US.

Central Command said called the strike “a follow-on action on a specific military target associated with strikes taken on January 12”.

President Biden says he considers the Houthis to be a terrorist group.Credit: Bloomberg

The latest strike came after the US Navy warned American-flagged vessels to steer clear of areas around Yemen in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden for 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 latest attack showed the Biden administration would not wait for retaliation to press ahead with its campaign against the Houthis. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said his goal is to restore shipping through a vital trade waterway after the Iran-backed group’s earlier attacks forced many companies to route their ships around Africa.

The US and its allies had been bracing for a response after the Houthis vowed “imminent” attacks to target US and UK commercial vessels because of the earlier strikes.

The back-and-forth, as well as the new strike, prompted fresh worries that the turmoil in the Red Sea would continue unabated. It will force President Joe Biden to consider how long to maintain strikes — or seek some other solution if they don’t succeed. Israel has said it won’t let up its attacks on Gaza following Hamas’ October 7 incursion — the Houthis’ initial justification for their strikes.

Central Command said the strikes weren’t connected to Operation Prosperity Guardian, the multinational naval task force set up last month to protect ships in the Red Sea. Including that distinction in the statement show some countries in the group have been uncomfortable with the idea of retaliatory strikes and don’t want to be targeted themselves.

Satellite images showed destroyed shelters at Hudaydah airfield in Yemen.Credit: Maxar Technologies /AP

Of the more than 100 precision-guided weapons fired at Houthi targets on Friday, more than 80 were Tomahawk missiles, according to two American defence officials, who asked not to be identified discussing details that haven’t been widely released.

Before the allied attack, the Houthis had launched their own barrage of missiles and drones at ships in the Red Sea.

“Neither side is looking to have an all-out war, and they are badly mismatched,” Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at the Centre for International and Strategic Studies, wrote in a note of the US and Iran. “But that is not to say that the Houthis will stop attacking shipping, or that the United States will stop attacking the Houthis.”

Earlier on Saturday (AEDT), the UK Maritime Trade Operations, which oversees Middle Eastern waters, reported a new attack off Yemen, when a missile was fired towards a ship some 140 kilometres south-east of Aden. The vessel reported no injuries or damage, the organisation said.

Earlier the US and Britain defended its strikes on Houthi targets as legal under international law and US President Joe Biden told Iran not to get involved, following a warning from Houthi leader Mohammed Ali al-Houthi that further attacks were “imminent”.

“I’ve already delivered the message to Iran – they know not to do anything,” Biden told reporters. “We will make sure that we respond to the Houthis as they continue this outrageous behaviour, along with our allies.”

US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the strikes on more than 60 targets in Yemen were consistent with international law and the UN Charter.

The operation was designed “to disrupt and degrade the Houthis’ ability to continue the reckless attacks against vessels and commercial shipping,” she said. More than 2000 ships have been forced to divert from the Red Sea since November.

British ambassador Susan Woodward described the strikes as a “limited, necessary and proportionate action” carried out in “self-defence”.

Biden said he considered the Houthis a terrorist group, suggesting Washington might restore its previous designation of the group that was revoked in 2021.

Earlier, Houthi leader Mohammed Ali al-Houthi told tens of thousands of supporters in Yemen’s capital Sanaa that counterattacks were “imminent”, raising the prospect of a wider conflict in a region already beset by Israel’s war in Gaza, and putting Western naval forces on high alert.

In Saada, the Houthis’ stronghold in north-west Yemen, protesters gathered for a rally, denouncing the US and Israel. Crowds also assembled and burnt US, British and Israeli flags in Tehran, Iran.

Israel has said it won’t let up its military campaign in Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’ October 7 incursion and massacre of about 1200 people in southern Israel — and a diplomatic solution is unlikely.

The strikes have brought the world’s attention back to Yemen’s years-long war, which began when the Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014.

A Saudi-led coalition that included the United Arab Emirates intervened to back Yemen’s exiled government in 2015, quickly morphing the conflict into a regional confrontation as Iran backed the Houthis with weapons and other support.

Fighting has slowed in recent years, with the Houthis controlling territory that is home to some two-thirds of Yemen’s 20 million population.

War and misgovernment have made the country one of the poorest in the Arab world. The UN World Food Program considers the vast majority of Yemen’s people to be food-insecure.

In March, Saudi Arabia reached a Chinese-mediated deal to restart relations with Iran in the hope of ultimately withdrawing from the conflict.

However, an overall deal has yet to be reached, likely sparking Saudi Arabia’s expression of “great concern” over the strikes on Friday as it seeks to manage its delicate relationship with Iran.

“While the kingdom stresses the importance of preserving the security and stability of the Red Sea region ... it calls for restraint and avoiding escalation,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Iran condemned the attack in a statement from Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani.

“Arbitrary attacks will have no result other than fuelling insecurity and instability in the region,” he said.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning called on nations not to escalate tensions in the Red Sea, while Russia condemned the strikes as “illegitimate from the point of view of international law.”

Bloomberg, AP, Reuters

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