US fires Houthi missile before launch

• US forces operating near Yemen have changed strategy and are now preemptively destroying the Houthi threat.
• U.S. Navy ships spent months blocking Houthi attacks and warning them to stop, to no avail.
• Biden said attacks on insurgents have not been stopped but will continue.

U.S. forces operating near Yemen are no longer waiting to respond to the Houthi threat and are striking before it begins. This is a new tactic aimed at putting more pressure on the organization.

The United States had previously spent months simply intercepting missiles and drones without conducting a direct kinetic response against the Houthis. The situation changed last Thursday, but the change does not appear to deter Iranian-backed militants.

On Thursday, reporters asked President Joe Biden whether the offensive against the Houthis would be effective.

“Well, when you say ‘working,’ are they stopping the Houthis? They’re not,” he said, referring to the strike. “Are you planning on continuing? Yes.”

Since the United States, in a coordinated multilateral response with allies and partners, directly launched large-scale retaliatory strikes against the Houthis last week as punishment for dozens of attacks on international shipping, the US military is now regularly Houthi missiles are aimed directly at the ground. A militant group is waiting to launch an attack.

U.S. Central Command announced on Thursday that it had “struck two Houthi anti-ship missiles that were ready for launch into the southern Red Sea.”

The U.S. military identified the missile in Houthi-held territory in Yemen and “determined that it poses an imminent threat to commercial shipping and U.S. naval vessels in the region,” the press release said.

A similar situation occurred the day before. Centcom announced that it “attacked 14 Iranian-backed Houthi missiles that were loaded for launch into Houthi-held areas in Yemen.”

Wednesday’s press release said, “These missiles on launch rails pose an imminent threat to commercial shipping and U.S. Navy vessels in the region, could be launched at any time, and violate the inherent self-defense rights and obligations of the U.S. military.” “I urged the use of this,” he added.

The day before, Centcom announced that the U.S. military had “attacked and destroyed four Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles that were preparing to launch from areas controlled by the Houthis.”

In all of these cases, the United States acted aggressively and denigrated the Houthi forces, now redesignated as terrorists, by prioritizing pre-emptive strikes to neutralize them before missiles were launched. .

Regardless of how this plays out, this is a marked change from the way the United States and its allies have been dealing with the Houthis over the past several months.

Houthi attacks, which began in direct response to the Israel-Hamas war, have escalated, forcing the global shipping industry to reroute ships, increasing costs and time.

Already containing the threat, the United States took steps in mid-December to restore navigation in the region through coalition action, but Houthi attacks continued. By early January, the United States and more than a dozen countries had issued statements condemning the Houthis and calling for an immediate end to the attacks.

“If the Houthis continue to threaten human life, the global economy, and the free flow of commerce in the region’s vital waterways, they will bear responsibility for the consequences,” the statement said.

Shortly after, the Houthis launched their largest offensive in history, which included 18 unidirectional attack drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles, and one anti-ship ballistic missile, according to Centcom. That’s what it means.

Western officials continued to warn of attacks until last Thursday, when the US and UK attacked dozens of Houthi assets across Yemen, including radar stations, weapons depots, launch sites, command facilities and production facilities. carried out a wide range of attacks targeting

Since last week, the US has carried out five direct attacks against the Houthis. And as Biden said, the strikes are expected to continue. A Pentagon spokesperson told the media this afternoon that it is up to the Houthis to decide when this ends.