The New York Times
For years, Iranbacked Yemeni rebels known as the Houthis have caused trouble for America's partners in the Middle East, to the point that Pentagon war strategists have begun copying some of their tactics.
A senior U.S. commander noted that the Houthis had managed to weaponize commercial radar systems commonly found in boat shops and urged his Marines to discover something similar. Starting in September 2022, Marines in the Baltic Sea will adapt Houthistyle mobile radar systems.
When the Houthis began attacking ships in the Red Sea, senior Pentagon officials already knew they would be difficult to control.
As Joe Biden's administration approaches its third week of airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, his Defense Department is trying to find a nearimpossible solution: weakening the Houthi's ability to attack merchant ships and naval vessels without forcing the U.S. into a protracted battle to go to war.
It's a difficult task, especially because the Houthis have perfected irregular warfare tactics, U.S. military officials say. The group does not have many large weapons depots that could be bombed by American warplanes its fighters are constantly on the move, firing missiles from pickup trucks on remote beaches before fleeing.
The first series of U.S.led airstrikes about two weeks ago hit nearly 30 locations in Yemen, destroying about 90% of the targets hit, Pentagon officials said. But even with this high success rate, the Houthis retained about 75% of their ability to fire missiles and drones against ships transiting the Red Sea, the same officials admitted.
Since then, the Pentagon has conducted seven additional rounds of offensive operations. And the Houthis continued their attacks on ships entering the Red Sea.
“There's a level of sophistication here that you can't ignore,” said Gen. Joseph Votel, who commanded U.S. Military Central Command from 2016 to 2019 when Saudi Arabia tried to defeat the Houthis in Yemen.
The Pentagon's strategy so far has been to place armed Reaper drones and other surveillance platforms in Yemeni skies so that American warplanes and ships can attack mobile Houthi targets as they appear.
On the night of Monday (22), the United States and the United Kingdom attacked nine locations in the country, hitting multiple targets in each location. Unlike most previous bombings, these were planned at night. They hit radars, drone and missile sites, and underground weapons storage bunkers.
This mediocre approach reflects the government's attempt to weaken the Houthis' ability to threaten commercial and military vessels, but without hitting them so hard as to kill too many fighters, which would have the potential to trigger even more chaos.
Authorities say they will continue trying to hit moving targets while experts look for stationary targets.
After nearly a decade of Saudi airstrikes, the Houthis have become adept at concealing their holdings by placing some of their launchers and weapons in urban areas and firing rockets from behind vehicles or tractors before fleeing.
The weapons ultimately destroyed are quickly being replaced by Iran, and an endless stream of ships from the Islamic Republic are transporting more and more equipment to Yemen.
It is believed that the Houthis already had underground weapons assembly and production facilities before the Yemeni civil war began in 2014. The militias seized the country's army arsenal when they captured the capital Sanaa a decade ago. Since then, it has amassed a diverse and increasingly deadly arsenal of cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and disposable attack drones, mostly supplied by Iran.
“The diversity of its arsenal is impressive,” says Fabian Hinz, an expert on missiles, drones and the Middle East at the IISS (International Institute for Strategic Studies) in London.
Military analysts say the U.S. and its allies are left with only three viable options given Biden's strategic goals in Yemen. They could take possession of weapons arriving by sea from Iran; finding the missiles, which requires a wide range of intelligence information; or attack starting positions.
The third option is the most difficult. The Houthis are believed to be hiding mobile rocket launchers in the most unlikely places, from sewers to highway crossings. In addition, they are easy to transport.