US strikes underground Houthi weapons depots used to hit American ships
The U.S. military on Wednesday said its forces struck weapons depots used by the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist group in Yemen to target naval warships and merchant vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
"U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted multiple precision strikes against two Iranian-backed Houthi underground Advanced Conventional Weapon (ACW) storage facilities within Houthi-controlled territories of Yemen," CENTCOM said in a statement.
The military command confirmed there were no injuries to U.S. personnel and no U.S. equipment was damaged in the strike. It did not confirm whether any Houthi terrorists were killed or injured in the attack.
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"The strikes are part of CENTCOM's effort to degrade Iranian-backed Houthi attempts to threaten regional partners and military and merchant vessels in the region," CENTCOM added.
The U.S. military did not confirm where in Yemen the strikes were carried out, though local outlet Al-Masirah TV, which is owned and funded by the Houthis, reportedly claimed that five "raids" were carried out in the northwestern Amran province and two in the Sanaa province, where the capital city of Sanaa is located, reported Voice of America.
The Houthis have long operated out of Sanaa and other coastal regions after taking the capital city in 2014 from the internationally recognized government.
The Wednesday strike on the terrorist network is just the latest in an apparent increase by the outgoing Biden administration, which conducted at least three strikes last month on Houthi targets, including command and control facilities and weapons production and storage depots.
The U.S. also successfully countered at least two separate attempted strikes by the Houthi rebels on naval and merchant ships in December alone.
Attacks by the Houthis have increased in recent years, but they ramped up following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel, which the Houthis have also increasingly targeted over the last 15 months.
But as rocket fire from Gaza and Lebanon following more than a year of fighting with Israel has fallen drastically amid a cease-fire agreement with Hezbollah and the campaign against Hamas, the Houthis have escalated their attacks.
Reports this month have suggested the Houthis continue to launch missile fire from over 1,200 miles away at Israel – not only posing a physical threat to Israelis but continuing to affect shipping lanes and air transport.
Israel has warned that if the attacks by the Yemeni terrorist group do not stop, Jerusalem will respond as it has against other Iran-backed forces.
"We will hunt down all of the Houthis’ leaders and we will strike them just as we have done in other places," Defense Minister Israel Katz said in late December, reported the Associated Press.