U.S. military launches strikes on Houthis in Yemen

U.S. warplanes, ships and submarines along with British fighters attacked sites in Yemen Thursday associated with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who have been firing dozens of drones and missiles into Red Sea shipping lanes, USA Today reported. 

The strikes represent a significant escalation of the U.S. involvement in Middle East fighting amid Israel’s war in Gaza. They followed the 27th Houthi attack since late November earlier Thursday. In recent weeks, the Pentagon has also attacked Iranian-backed militants in Iraq and Syria who have targeted U.S. troops there with rocket attacks.

Today, at my direction, U.S. military forces — together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands — successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways," President Joe Biden said late Thursday.

The U.S. president said the response of the international community to the Houthi attacks has been "united and resolute." The governments of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, and the United Kingdom issued a statement shortly after the U.S.-led air strikes, pledging solidarity alongside the U.S.

The Biden administration has sought to contain fighting in the Middle East to Gaza, but Iranian-backed groups throughout the region have increased their attacks.

"These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea — including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history," Biden said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who has been hospitalized since Jan. 1, approved the strikes from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, one official said. Austin, whose delay in disclosing his cancer diagnosis and hospitalization has drawn heavy, bi-partisan criticism, was deeply involved in planning Thursday's attack, according to a senior Defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Austin spoke twice with Biden in recent days about planning for the attack along with consulting senior military officers, the official said. Austin gave the order Thursday to U.S. Central Command to launch the strikes and monitored them in real time.

"Today’s strikes targeted sites associated with the Houthis’ unmanned aerial vehicle, ballistic and cruise missile, and coastal radar and air surveillance capabilities," Austin said. "The United States maintains its right to self-defense and, if necessary, we will take follow-on actions to protect U.S. forces."