The Meaning of US Airstrikes on Houthis
The official collapse of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire last week set off a chain reaction of airstrikes and missile launches in Yemen, Gaza, and Israel reminiscent of the heydays of war last fall.
On Saturday, March 15, U.S. Central Command fighter jets took off from the flight deck of the USS Harry S. Truman and, accompanied by guided missiles from other destroyers in the strike group, carried out “decisive and powerful” airstrikes on Houthi-controlled positions in Yemen. The attacks targeted the terrorist group’s command center and military infrastructure in the capital city of Sanaa, the Hodeida port, and northern provinces, killing 53 and wounding 98.
The fanatical objective of Iranian-backed Islamic terrorism is not so easily broken — as Israel’s 17-month, multi-front war has revealed.
The U.S. attack was preemptive, stemming from events developing since March 2 when Israel halted the flow of international aid into Gaza over Hamas’s unwillingness to negotiate new terms of the ceasefire-hostage agreement. In response, the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen vowed to resume attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, which they had stopped when the ceasefire agreement was brokered on Jan. 19.
When the ceasefire officially collapsed late last week, the Houthis’ so-called “Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center” reiterated the group’s commitment to attack “any Israeli ship” (or ships bound for Israel) in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea out of “a deep sense of religious, humanitarian and moral responsibility to the oppressed Palestinian people.” This kicked into action President Trump’s commitment to ensure free navigation on the high seas and the U.S. military responded with preemptive airstrikes across Yemen between Saturday and Thursday.
Despite inflicting significant destruction and high casualties, the attacks emboldened the Houthi terrorists who launched a counterstrike of cruise missiles and drones against the Truman carrier strike group. U.S. officials told Reuters on Sunday that U.S. warplanes shot down 11 Houthi drones headed for the carrier group. The following day, Yemen’s Al-Masirah media televised tens of thousands of demonstrators in Sanaa, Saada, and Hodeida chanting “Death to America, death to Israel!”
The Houthis also fired three ballistic missiles at Israel between Wednesday and Thursday. The missiles were successfully intercepted before entering Israeli airspace but nonetheless triggered the all too familiar sound of sirens across the densely populated center between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promised an “unrelenting” airstrike campaign until the Houthis’ threats have stopped. “This campaign is about freedom of navigation and restoring deterrence,” Hegseth told Fox News.
The airstrike campaign, however, carried a much wider message to the region, forecasting how Trump might enact policy in the Middle East and who he ultimately holds responsible for terrorism. Since taking office, Trump has talked much about “opening the gates of hell” on terrorist organizations but with little action to back it up.
Commenting on his Truth Social platform, Trump reiterated that if the Houthi “thugs” don’t stop their threats or attacks “HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE.” The president also called the past Biden administration “pathetically weak” for allowing Houthis to carry out unrestrained attacks for over a year with little military intervention.
The preemptive airstrikes in Yemen are the administration’s first sign of leading by action rather than words, and conveyed that under Trump’s policy of “peace through strength,” even rhetorical threats won’t be tolerated and will be met with brute force.
The attacks in Yemen have just as much to do with Hamas in Gaza as they do with the Houthis. The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel officially collapsed last week when Hamas refused to accept U.S. Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff’s proposal to extend “phase one” until mid-April.
By mid-week, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) carried out the first extensive airstrikes on Hamas military sites in the Gaza Strip since Jan. 18, before the ceasefire was enacted. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed the resumption of hostilities following “Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejections of all of the proposals it has received from U.S. Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and the mediators.”
Hamas still holds 24 living Israeli hostages and 35 Israeli bodies in Gaza and is not willing to negotiate their release, even at the expense of war, until the IDF has fully withdrawn from the Gaza Strip.
Witkoff used the attacks in Yemen to send a firm message to Hamas: “I believe they [Hamas] have an opportunity [for peace], but it is slipping away quickly. What happened with the Houthis […] what happened with our [air]strike, ought to inform as to where we stand with regard to terrorism and our tolerance level for terrorist actions — and I would encourage Hamas to get much more sensible.”
Airstrikes Send a Message
Perhaps the toughest message, however, was intended for Iran. Trump warned Iran to give up its support of the Houthis or else Washington will hold Tehran “fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it.” “Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN,” Trump stated.
Like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis are a military proxy and imperial dominion of Iran, taking orders directly from the Ayatollah’s regime in Tehran. Aside from Iran’s direct missile attacks on Israel on April 14 and Oct. 1, 2024, these proxies have been spilling their blood at the expense of carrying out Tehran’s war against Israel and the West.
Although the U.S. airstrikes this week have shaken the region, it remains to be determined whether or not Trump’s “peace through strength” policy can effectively dissuade unconventional terrorist groups, and whether Iranian proxies should view the attacks as a one-time scare or a new phase of continuous U.S. military intervention.
The fanatical objective of Iranian-backed Islamic terrorism is not so easily broken — as Israel’s 17-month, multi-front war has revealed. If the airstrikes are any indication of a new Trump era of military deterrence, the level of Washington’s long-term commitment to expend manpower and taxpayer dollars in the region also has yet to be determined, especially as the Houthis and Hamas have since doubled down on their positions of resistance.
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