US hits Houthi rebels directly for first time

The United States military directly targeted Yemen’s Houthi rebels for the first time on Thursday hitting radar sites controlled by the insurgents after US warships came under missile attacks twice in four days.

The Iran-backed rebels have denied carrying out the attacks, which saw missiles fired at US warships in the Red Sea on Sunday and Wednesday but falling short of their targets.

The US is providing logistical support to a Saudi-led coalition that has been battling the rebels since last year, but Thursday’s bombing marked the first time Washington has taken direct action against the Houthis.

Following the US strikes, Iranian media reported that Tehran had dispatched two warships to the Gulf of Aden on October 5, tasked with ‘protecting commercial ships and oil tankers’ from pirates. The Pentagon said the cruise missile strikes — authorised by President Barack Obama — were launched at 4:00 am local time (0100 GMT) by the destroyer USS Nitze against territory on Yemen’s Red Sea coast controlled by the Houthis. “Initial assessments show the sites were destroyed,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement.

The strikes “targeted radar sites involved in the recent missile launches threatening USS Mason and other vessels operating in international waters in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb (Strait),” he said. “The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate, and will continue to maintain our freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb, and elsewhere around the world,” Mr Cook added.

The Houthis said the accusations they had fired on US warships were “baseless”. Meanwhile, the Human Rights Watch, which has regularly criticised the Saudi intervention, and said the funeral strike needed to be investigated as “an apparent war crime”.

Yemen’s conflict has killed more than 6,800 people, according to the UN.