WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces carried out a fifth attack Thursday against Iran-backed military sites of Yemen's Houthi rebels, as President Joe Biden acknowledged that American and British bombings have not yet stopped the militants' attacks on ships in the Red Sea would have disrupted global shipping.
The latest strikes destroyed two Houthi anti-ship missiles that were “aimed at the southern Red Sea and primed for launch,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. They were carried out by Navy F/A-18 fighter jets, the Pentagon said.
Biden said the U.S. would continue attacks, although it had so far failed to stop the Houthis from continuing to attack commercial and military vessels.
“If you say they are working, are they stopping the Houthis? No. Will they continue, yes,” Biden said in an exchange with reporters before leaving the White House for a domestic policy speech in North Carolina.
Hours after Biden spoke, the Houthi brigade arrived. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a prerecorded statement that his forces had carried out another missile strike against the Marshall Islands-flagged U.S. cargo ship Chem Ranger. Saree said the attack took place in the Gulf of Aden, waters south of Yemen.
That attack had no impact on the ship, U.S. Central Command said in a statement late Thursday.
“The crew observed the missiles hitting the water near the ship,” no injuries or damage were reported and the ship continued to sail, Central Command said.
The ongoing harassment of the ships has prompted the U.S. and international partners to take extraordinary measures to defend them as part of a joint mission called Operation Prosperity Guardian, in which the consortium is trying to create a protective umbrella for the ships by protecting all of them Missiles or drones that intercept the ships target them. It has also led to the US and British militaries taking action to take out missile sites, radars and air defense systems in an attempt to curb the Houthis' ability to attack.
On Wednesday, the US military fired another wave of ship and submarine missile attacks against 14 Houthi-controlled sites. On the same day, the government added the Houthis back to its list of specially designated global terrorists. The sanctions associated with the formal designation are intended to cut off violent extremist groups from their sources of funding while allowing vital humanitarian aid to continue to flow to impoverished Yemenis.
“These attacks will continue for as long as necessary,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday, adding: “I will not demonstrate strikes one way or the other.”
Despite sanctions and military strikes, including a major operation by American and British warships and warplanes on Friday that hit more than 60 targets across Yemen, the Houthis continue to harass commercial and military vessels. The US has strongly warned Iran to stop supplying arms to the Houthis.
“We never said the Houthis would stop immediately,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said at a briefing when asked why the attacks did not appear to have stopped the Houthis. Since the start of the joint US-UK operation last Friday, in which 28 locations and more than 60 targets were struck in the first round, the Houthis' attacks have been “smaller in scale”, Singh said.
For months, the Houthis have claimed attacks on ships in the Red Sea that they say are either linked to Israel or bound for Israeli ports. They say their attacks are aimed at ending Israel's air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, which was triggered by the Palestinian militant group Hamas' October 7 attack in southern Israel. But the connections to the target ships of the rebel attacks become weaker and weaker the longer the attacks last.
The attacks have also raised questions about whether the conflict between Israel and Hamas has already escalated into a larger regional war.
“We are not seeking war, we do not believe we are at war. We don’t want to see a regional war,” Singh said.
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Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Jerusalem, Jack Jeffrey in London and Lolita C. Baldor and Sagar Meghani in Washington contributed to this report.