United States and UK Joint Operation Targets Houthi Weapons in Yemen
The United States and the United Kingdom carried out a major joint operation on Saturday in an effort to target Houthi weapons launchers, radar sites, and drones in Yemen. According to U.S. officials, the attacks were carried out in 10 different locations using F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, as well as U.S. warships firing Tomahawk missiles from the Red Sea.
The Navy destroyers USS Gravely and USS Carney launched missiles as part of the operation, marking the third time that the U.S. and Britain have conducted a joint strike against Houthi targets. However, the Houthis have made it clear that they have no intention of stopping their attacks.
In a separate incident, the U.S. destroyer Laboon and F/A-18s from the Eisenhower shot down seven drones fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Red Sea on Friday. The destroyer Carney also shot down a drone fired into the Gulf of Aden, and U.S. forces eliminated four more drones that were ready to take off. Additionally, the United States carried out a self-defense strike in Yemen, destroying six anti-ship cruise missiles before the latest joint operation.
Following the retaliatory strikes, an Iraqi militia official suggested that he does not want to escalate tensions with the U.S. Hussein al-Mosawi, a spokesman for Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the main Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, condemned the U.S. strikes but expressed a desire to reduce regional tensions. Syrian state media reported casualties from the attacks, with Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying that 23 people were killed.
The Iraqi government also reported 16 deaths near the Syrian border and significant damage to homes and private property. In response, Iraq’s Foreign Ministry announced that it would summon the chargé d’affaires of the US embassy to lodge a formal protest over the attacks on “Iraqi military and civilian sites.”
The airstrikes were carried out as a retaliation for a drone strike that killed three U.S. soldiers in Jordan last weekend, with the U.S. blaming the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of militias backed by Iran.