US, Allies Strike Houthi Targets In Yemen, Iran Rebukes, Russia Requests UN Emergency Meeting

On Jan. 11, 2024, at 2:30 a.m. (Sanaa time), U.S. Central Command forces, in coordination with the United Kingdom, and support from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Bahrain conducted joint strikes on Houthi targets. © U.S. Central Command

WASHINGTON (CC) - General Douglas Sims, the Director of Operations, Joint Staff at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, told reporters on Friday that the US bombed missile launchers in mountains and low populated target areas in Yemen on Friday.

The air strikes marked the second day in a row that the Americans unleashed on the Houthis, who have been pirating ships and disrupting international civilian commerce in the Red Sea region for weeks.

"These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation," US President Joe Biden said after Thursday's strikes.

The hostile Islamist organization, trained and financially supported by Iran, says they are targeting only Israel-linked ships, in support of Hamas who is at war against Israel.

But moderate Arabs and Israel's allies alike claim that ships not linked to Israel have been attacked and forced to reroute in order to avoid one of the world's most vital waterways.

The Houthis had previously ignored US-led coalition's warnings to cease and desist their terrorist operations in the Red Sea.

The Yemeni rebels, who overthrew Yemen's Saudi Arabia-backed government and are still fighting a civil war that began in 2014, were undeterred after the US launched the first round of strikes on Thursday.

Almost two weeks ago, on New Year's Eve, US navy helicopters killed 10 Houthi rebels, and sank at least one of the pirate's gunboats, after the Yemeni jihadists attacked a civilian ship bearing the flag of Singapore on the Red Sea.

Now, as a result of the coalition's air strikes, according to Mr. Sims, the Shia Muslim radicals very likely do not have the same capacity to cause chaos in the Sea region that they did earlier in the week.

"I know we have degraded capability," Sims said. "I don't believe that they would be able to execute the same way they did the other day."

The US General warned the Houthis against striking back against the US. "I would hope that they don't respond. We're prepared in the event that they do." He added his sentiment that he hoped the Houthis realize that trying to retaliate would be "generally fruitless."

Mr. Sims further stated that the US did not intend to inflict a high number of casualties on Friday.

"This was not necessarily about casualties, as much as it was about degrading capability," he said. "This was solely designed to get after the capability that is impeding international freedom of navigation and international waters and that's where we feel pretty confident we did good work on that."

The day before he spoke to the press, the international envoy community reacted to the US-led strikes in statements that ranged from defiance, to support, to outrage, to peaceful diplomacy.

"The U.S. air strikes on Yemen are another example of the Anglo-Saxons' perversion of UN Security Council resolutions," Maria Zakharova, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman, said on Thursday.

The Russians reportedly requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. Russia has historically been a sideline ally of radical Shiite Muslims and US terrorist-designated organizations such as Hamas, as well as state sponsors of terrorism such as Iran.

Tehran maligned the Americans, Israel and anyone allied with them for the strikes on Yemen soil.

The Houthis, themselves, said Thursday's attacks were unjustified, vowed revenge and denied that they would stop pirating ships sailing towards Jerusalem.

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