The United States and Britain struck at least 30 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in a second wave of assaults meant to further disable Iran-backed groups that have relentlessly attacked US and international interests in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, American officials told the Associated Press.
Ships and fighter jets launched the latest strikes against the Houthis. The strikes follow an air assault in Iraq and Syria on Friday that targeted other Iran-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three US troops – William Jerome Rivers, Kennedy Ladon Sanders and Breonna Alexsondria Moffett – in Jordan last weekend.
US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said the military action “sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks on international shipping and naval vessels”.
The US never left the region. Airstrikes have been conducted by the US in Yemen almost every year for nearly a decade.
The US has also bombed Syria and Iraq this year. It is the beginning of February.
“About a decade” also being the length of time that the Houthis have been attacking ships in the strait.
And about 2 decades being how long the US has been using drone strikes in Yemen.
There is never an end to any “who started it?” question, but it’s pretty clear that the US military hasn’t been there to make friends. When people ask what the Houthi expected, perhaps they should also be asking why a foreign military was there at all.
Of course it’s never left the region. We all know that. But you can still increase presence and impact there.