The Guardian - 2/4/2024 1:35:19 AM - GMT (+3 )
Joint operation to further disable Iran-backed militias conducted after attacks on US and international interests amid war in Gaza
The United States and Britain struck at least 30 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in a second wave of assaults meant to further disable Iran-backed groups that have relentlessly attacked US and international interests in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, American officials told the Associated Press.
Ships and fighter jets launched the latest strikes against the Houthis. The strikes follow an air assault in Iraq and Syria on Friday that targeted other Iran-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three US troops – William Jerome Rivers, Kennedy Ladon Sanders and Breonna Alexsondria Moffett – in Jordan last weekend.
US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said the military action “sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks on international shipping and naval vessels”.
The Houthi targets were in 10 different locations and were struck by US F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Dwight D Eisenhower aircraft carrier and by American warships firing Tomahawk missiles from the Red Sea, the US officials said.
According to officials, the USS Gravely and the USS Carney, both Navy destroyers, launched missiles.
They were not authorized to publicly discuss the military operation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Saturday’s strikes marked the third time the US and Britain had conducted a large, joint operation to strike Houthi weapon launchers, radar sites and drones. But the Houthis have made it clear that they have no intention of scaling back their assault.
On Friday, the US destroyer Laboon and F/A-18s from the Eisenhower shot down seven drones launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Red Sea; the destroyer Carney also shot down a drone fired in the Gulf of Aden and US forces took out four more drones that were prepared to launch.
Hours before the latest joint operation, the US took another self-defense strike on a site in Yemen, destroying six anti-ship cruise missiles, as it has repeatedly when it has detected a missile or drone ready to launch.
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