Remarks following the fifth round of attacks by the United States against targets in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen.
US President Joe Biden has pledged to continue attacks against the Houthis in Yemen, although he admitted military action against the rebel group has failed to stop attacks on commercial shipping.
Biden made his remarks Thursday after the U.S. carried out its fifth round of strikes against targets in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement it destroyed two anti-ship missiles after determining they posed an “imminent threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy vessels in the region.”
Asked by reporters whether the attacks against the rebel group worked, Biden acknowledged that they had not stopped attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea.
“Well, when you talk about work, are they stopping the Houthis? No,” Biden said. “Will they continue? Yes.”
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in a later briefing that the Houthis must make the decision to stop the attacks.
“We never said the Houthis would stop immediately,” Singh said, adding that it was in the group’s “best interest” to stop the attacks.
“You have seen that since Thursday we have been able to degrade, significantly disrupt and destroy a significant portion of their capabilities. But it’s really up to them if they decide to stop obstructing merchant shipping, innocent sailors crossing the Red Sea.”
Singh also said that the US was not at war with the Houthis and that its actions were in self-defense.
“We don’t believe we are at war. We don’t want to see a regional war,” Singh said. “The Houthis are the ones who continue to fire cruise missiles and anti-ship missiles at innocent sailors and merchant ships passing through an area where, as you know, 10 to 15 percent of world trade takes place.”
The Houthis said in a statement later Thursday that they had carried out a missile attack on the U.S. ship Chem Ranger in the Gulf of Aden that resulted in “direct hits.”
CENTCOM said the rebel group fired two missiles at the U.S. tanker but missed their target.
The Iran-backed Houthis have carried out repeated attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea, a key hub for global trade, to show their support for Palestinians being bombarded in the Gaza Strip.
More than two dozen ships have been attacked by the group since it seized the Israel-linked ship Galaxy Leader in November.
The attacks have forced some of the world's largest shipping companies to reroute their ships around the southern tip of Africa, causing severe disruptions to global trade.
The U.S. and its partners launched a multinational force, Operation Prosperity Guardian, last month to protect commercial vessels from drone and missile attacks in the waterway.