Middle East

US launches fresh strike on Yemen a day after broader attack

Cruise missile attack, carried out by the US alone, aimed at Houthi radar installation

A man holding Yemen's national flag and another carrying a mock jet walk to participate in a protest in Sana'a on Friday against air strikes by US and British forces. Photograph: Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images

Jennifer Jacobs and Peter Martin
Sat Jan 13 2024 - 07:59

The US launched a fresh air strike on a Houthi rebel radar installation in the early hours of Saturday, in what was described as a follow-up attack to an earlier barrage across Yemen intended to degrade the group’s ability to target commercial shipping 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, this one was conducted solely by the US.

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

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The latest attack showed that the Biden administration would not wait for retaliation to press ahead with its campaign against the Houthis. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said his goal is to restore shipping through a vital trade waterway after the 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 had vowed “imminent” attacks to target US and UK commercial vessels because of the earlier strikes.

The back-and-forth 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 in the wake of Hamas’s October 7th incursion – the Houthis’ initial justification for their strikes.

Central Command said the latest strikes weren’t connected to Operation Prosperity Guardian, the multinational naval taskforce set up last month to protect ships in the Red Sea.

Including that distinction highlighted how some countries in the group have been uncomfortable with the idea of retaliatory strikes and don’t want to be targeted themselves.

Of the more than 100 precision-guided weapons fired at Houthi targets earlier, 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.

Shortly before the allied attack, the Houthis had launched a concentrated barrage of missiles and drones at ships in the Red Sea.

The strikes embroil the US in yet another fight with an Iranian proxy since the Israel-Hamas war erupted after the Hamas attack. American forces have launched strikes in Syria and Iraq in recent weeks against Iranian-supported militias that have targeted American bases – so far without major casualties.

“Neither side is looking to have an all-out war, and they are badly mismatched,” Jon Alterman, a senior vice-president at the Center 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.” – Bloomberg

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