The U.S. and Britain struck Saturday more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen, answering a recent surge in attacks by the Iran-backed militia group on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, including a missile strike last week that set fire to a cargo vessel.
According to U.S. officials, American and British fighter jets hit about 18 sites across multiple locations, targeting missiles, launchers, rockets, drones and unmanned surface and underwater vehicles. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to provide early details of an ongoing military operation.
The U.S. fighter jets launched from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, which is in the Red Sea.
President Joe Biden and other senior leaders have repeatedly warned that the U.S. won't tolerate the Houthi attacks against commercial shipping. But the counterattacks haven't appeared to diminish the Houthis' campaign against shipping in the region, which the militants say is over Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The group has launched at least 57 attacks on commercial and military ships in the the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since Nov. 19, and the pace has picked up in recent days.
"We've certainly seen in the past 48, 72 hours an increase in attacks from the Houthis," Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said in a briefing Thursday. And she acknowledged that the Houthis have not been deterred.
"We never said we've wiped off the map all of their capabilities," she told reporters. "We know that the Houthis maintain a large arsenal. They are very capable. They have sophisticated weapons, and that's because they continue to get them from Iran."
There have been at least 32 U.S. strikes in Yemen over the past month and a half; a few were conducted with allied involvement. In addition, U.S. warships have taken out dozens of incoming missiles, rockets and drones targeting commercial and other Navy vessels.
Earlier Saturday, the destroyer USS Mason downed an anti-ship ballistic missile launched from Houthi-held areas in Yemen toward the Gulf of Aden, U.S. Central Command said, adding that the missile was likely targeting MV Torm Thor, a U.S. flagged, owned and operated chemical and oil tanker.
The U.S. attacks on the Houthis have targeted more than 120 launchers; more than 10 surface-to-air missiles; 40 storage and support buildings; 15 drone storage buildings; more than 20 unmanned air, surface and underwater vehicles; several underground storage areas; and a few other facilities.
The rebels' supreme leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, announced last week that an "escalation in sea operations" conducted by his forces as part of what they describe as a pressure campaign to end Israel's war on Hamas.
But while the group says the attacks are aimed at stopping that war, the Houthis' targets have grown more random, endangering a vital waterway for shipments traveling from Asia and the Middle East onward to Europe.
During normal operations, about 400 commercial vessels transit the southern Red Sea at any given time. While the Houthi attacks have only actually struck a small number of vessels, the persistent targeting and near misses that have been shot down by the U.S. and allies have prompted shipping companies to reroute their vessels from the Red Sea.
Instead, they have sent them around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope -- a much longer, costlier and less efficient passage.
Central Command said Saturday a Houthi attack on a Belize-flagged ship Feb. 18 caused an 18-mile oil slick, and the military warned of the danger of a spill from the vessel's cargo of fertilizer. The Rubymar, a British-registered, Lebanese-operated cargo vessel, was attacked while sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The missile attack forced the crew to abandon the vessel, which had been on its way to Bulgaria after leaving Khorfakkan in the United Arab Emirates. It was transporting more than 41,000 tons of fertilizer, according to a Central Command statement.
The Associated Press, relying on satellite images from Planet Labs PBC of the stricken vessel, reported Tuesday that the vessel was leaking oil in the Red Sea.
Yemen's internationally recognized government Saturday called for other countries and maritime-protection organizations to quickly address the oil slick and avert "a significant environmental disaster.
Information for this report was contributed by Samy Magdy of The Associated Press
This image provided by the U.S. Navy shows an aircraft launching from USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) during flight operations in the Red Sea, Jan. 22, 2024. The U.S. and Britain have struck more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen. The strikes on Saturday, Feb. 24, answer a recent surge in attacks by the Iran-backed militia group on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The U.S. fighter jets launched from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, which is currently in the Red Sea. (Kaitlin Watt/U.S. Navy via AP)