U.S. warship shoots down Houthi assault drones as Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin arrives in Middle East
An American warship on Saturday shot down 14 assault drones launched by Houthi forces working in Yemen, Pentagon officers mentioned, marking one more direct conflict between U.S. troops and the Iran-backed insurgent group.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees American navy operations within the area, mentioned the Houthis launched the “drone wave” over the Red Sea. Officials didn’t say what the targets had been believed to be, however the Houthis have launched repeated missile and drone assaults geared toward Israel within the months because the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an Oct. 7 terror assault on the Jewish state. U.S. warships have intercepted these Houthi assaults a number of occasions. On not less than one event, an American ship got here underneath direct hearth from Houthi forces.
Saturday’s conflict was particularly important as a result of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived within the Middle East over the weekend for a quick multi-nation go to. His journey to the area will embrace a cease in Bahrain to debate efforts to cease the Houthi assaults.
“We will talk with them in a multinational framework about the work we’re doing, particularly in light of increasing Houthi aggression in the Red Sea,” a U.S. protection official instructed reporters on the Pentagon on Friday, previewing the secretary’s journey.
Mr. Austin additionally is anticipated to go to the USS Gerald R. Ford, which was dispatched to the Mediterranean Sea shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist assault on Israel. That warship, like different U.S. navy belongings despatched to the Middle East within the weeks after the assault, is supposed to discourage different actors from capitalizing on the Israel-Hamas conflict within the Gaza Strip and increasing the battle right into a wider regional struggle.
But within the case of the Houthis, America’s deterrence doesn’t appear to be working. Saturday’s incident was the newest in a string of harmful clashes which have put U.S. troops and industrial delivery vessels within the area’s busy waterways at risk. No one was injured and no ships broken throughout Saturday’s incident, officers mentioned.
During the incident, CENTCOM mentioned the USS Carney within the Red Sea “successfully engaged 14 unmanned aerial systems launched as a drone wave from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.”
“The UAS were assessed to be one-way attack drones and were shot down with no damage to ships in the area or reported injuries. Regional Red Sea partners were alerted to the threat,” CENTCOM mentioned in a press release posted on social media.
Earlier this month, a Navy destroyer and three industrial ships got here underneath missile-and-drone hearth from the Houthis. In one other latest incident, missiles fired by the Houthis landed close to American ships within the area, although Pentagon officers say the U.S. vessels weren’t the meant goal. And final month, the Houthis shot down a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone working in worldwide airspace off the coast of Yemen.
The White House has accused the Houthis of reckless habits that would spark a wider struggle, although the U.S. to this point has opted in opposition to direct strikes on Houthi targets inside Yemen. Such a transfer may itself escalate the Middle East battle and will derail intensive United Nations-backed peace talks geared toward ending Yemen‘s long-running civil war.
Analysts warn that the Houthis have little incentive to stop their attacks. What’s worse, the group is broadly seen as extra unpredictable than different Iran-backed outfits within the area, together with Hamas, Hezbollah and the Shiite militias which have repeatedly focused U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.
“What’s different about the Houthis is, they don’t have to be careful,” Michael Knights, a fellow on the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who carefully tracks Iran-linked militias, instructed The Washington Times not too long ago.
“The Houthis are just sitting there in Yemen, much further away than Lebanese Hezbollah is from Israel,” Mr. Knights mentioned. “They’ve been bombed for the last eight, nine years. They have a very high pain threshold. All their leadership is extremely well hidden so the Saudis couldn’t assassinate them during the war. They’re locked down. And they’re actually much more ideologically pure and determined than Lebanese Hezbollah or the militias” backed by Iran.
Mr. Knights described the Houthis because the true “hardliners” of the Iranian axis of resistance throughout the Middle East, saying the group has “less to lose” and is “more crazy” than different actors threatening the U.S. and Israel.
