Strike on Yemen hit more Houthi sites than first disclosed, U.S. says

The official, Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, told reporters Friday that the second wave of airstrikes was a necessary self-defense measure after U.S. forces observed additional Houthi weapons during their nighttime assault. Targets included radar stations, drone and missile launch sites and storage depots, he said. Combined, more than 150 munitions were used to destroy dozens of sites, Sims noted, adding that a damage assessment was ongoing.

Sims said that after the strikes, another ballistic missile was launched from Yemen but failed to strike any vessels.

Thursday’s operation, involving a consortium of air and naval assets led by the United States and Britain, intensified fears that Israel’s war in Gaza will spread beyond the besieged Palestinian enclave and engulf the region in violence. Already, Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire near-daily over the Lebanon border. And although Hezbollah, another of Iran’s proxies, has thus far shied from escalation, the Houthis have seized the opportunity to position themselves as Gaza’s defenders.

As thousands gathered Friday in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, to protest the previous night’s assault, Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said the strikes would not go “unpunished or unanswered,” and in a video message affirmed that the group would not be deterred.

Saree said 73 strikes hit Sanaa and four other regions, killing five of the group’s fighters and wounding six. The claims could not be independently verified.

Sims said the operation “was not as much about casualties as it was about degrading capability,” surmising that the Houthis now are “trying to figure things out on the ground and trying to determine what capabilities still exist for them.” The United States has so far not indicated publicly how many people may have died as a result.

In Washington, some on Capitol Hill aired concerns that the Biden administration had sidestepped Congress by authorizing the operation without the lawmakers’ approval. President Biden, in a notice to Congress issued by the White House on Friday, said the strikes were a response to ongoing attacks that have threatened U.S. and British military vessels and imperiled key trade routes, and that they were designed to blunt the Houthis’ ability to sustain such activity.

Though the Houthis have been blamed for more than two dozen incidents in the Red Sea dating to November, a turning point, officials have said, was their complex attack this past Tuesday. The United States and its partners issued an ultimatum to the Houthis in response, but the warning to cease and desist was ignored.

Biden’s notification to Congress described the operation as “proportionate action consistent with international law.” It cites the United States’ “inherent right” of self-defense as outlined in the United Nations Charter. U.S. officials also have sought to emphasize that Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands supported the operation.

Biden has said he would “not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce.” But it remains to be seen what the Houthis may be capable of after Thursday’s military action.

Sims said he was doubtful the group would be able to execute an attack similar to the one earlier this week. “But,” he added, “we’ll see.”

A senior British official, Armed Forces Minister James Heappey, said Friday that four of its Typhoon fighter jets had struck two sites used to launch drone and missile attacks. No further strikes were “immediately planned,” Heappey told the BBC.

The Houthis function as a de facto government in the swaths of Yemen they control. That includes strategically crucial territory on the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the shipping choke point between the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal, key to trade between Asia, Europe and the United States.

Its attacks have forced some container ships to reroute thousands of miles and spend more money on fuel and insurance, which has disrupted trade and pushed up commodity prices.

Some observers predicted the limited airstrikes will have little impact on a guerrilla force hardened by a nine-year Saudi-led air campaign and instead increase the risk of escalation.

Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said the strikes went “against our advice and will only add fuel to an extremely dangerous situation.”

Saudi Arabia, which is trying to conclude a peace deal with the Houthis in a conflict that began in 2015, was “closely monitoring” events in the Red Sea and inside Yemen “with great concern,” its Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Iran, which has avoided direct confrontation with the United States since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, triggering the war in Gaza, called the strikes “a clear violation of Yemen’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said the United States launched the strikes “to divert the attention of the people of the world” from the war in Gaza.

The governments of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Britain and the United States said the strikes “demonstrated a shared commitment to freedom of navigation, international commerce, and defending the lives of mariners from illegal and unjustifiable attacks.”

Victoria Bissett, Andrew Jeong, Dan Lamothe and Adam Taylor contributed to this report.