U. S. forces carried out another airstrike on a Houthi-held area in Yemen early Saturday, U. S. officials confirmed.
U.S. Central Command reported that the USS Carney, a destroyer, conducted the strike at 3:45 a.m. local time Saturday on a Houthi radar site using Tomahawk missiles. No further details were provided, although Associated Press journalists in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, heard one loud explosion.
The airstrike came just a day after the U.S. and U.K. launched strikes on dozens of targets in Houthi-controlled Yemen in response to the Iranian-backed rebel group’s ongoing assault targeting shipping vessels in the Red Sea.
Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims II, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday’s moves used more than 150 precision-guided munitions to hit about 30 sites. CENTCOM said the moves targeted “commands and nodes, ammunition depots. “, launch systems, production facilities, and air defense radar systems. “
A spokesman for the Houthi army said Friday’s attacks left at least five other people dead and six wounded.
Despite the airstrikes, the Houthi movement’s Supreme Political Council pledged on Friday to continue sending ships into the Red Sea. Thousands of protesters rallied in Sanaa on Friday, burning American flags and chanting “God is great, death to America, death to Israel. “
President Biden said Friday that the U. S. would retaliate if the Houthis retaliated.
“We will make sure we respond to the Houthis as they continue this outrageous habit with our allies,” Biden said at a small business stopover in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
At a joint meeting on Friday, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea said the measures were a reaction to the Houthis’ “continued illegal, harmful and disruptive activities. “destabilizing attacks. ” against ships, adding advertisements of ships, transiting the Red Sea.
Since Nov. 19, there have been at least 28 attacks from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, according to CENTCOM. The attacks have prompted several giant shipping companies to avoid the Suez Canal and transit around all of Africa instead.
On January 9, Houthi rebels launched the largest such attack to date. A total of 18 drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles and one anti-ship ballistic missile were effectively shot down by US and British forces patrolling the Red Sea, with no injuries or injuries. damage.
The White House last month accused Tehran of being “deeply involved” in the Houthi’s Red Sea attacks, an allegation Iran’s deputy foreign minister denied.
However, the U. S. government proved that Iranian forces directly seized an oil tanker off the coast of Oman on Thursday carrying U. S. -authorized crude oil. The same shipment was seized through the U. S. government last year.
The Biden administration has worked to prevent the standoff between Israel and Hamas from escalating into a broader regional war across the Middle East, however, since the war began, Iranian-backed proxies have introduced attacks in the Red Sea and against U. S. forces in Iraq and Syria.
There have been at least 130 attacks by Iranian-backed militias on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17, including at least three since Monday.
— CNN’s Eleanor Watson, Jordan Freiman, Tucker Reals and Charlie D’Agata contributed to this report.