The US launched a series of missile strikes against targets in Yemen’s Red Sea province of Hodeidah on Monday as the US bombing campaign against the Houthis continues.
US Central Command said it conducted six strikes and claimed it destroyed “an unmanned underwater vessel and 18 anti-ship missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.”
The Houthis’ Al-Masirah TV reported that 14 US-British airstrikes were launched against targets in Hodeidah, but the British Defense Ministry said it wasn’t involved. The US and Britain have conducted several rounds of joint missile strikes against Yemen, but most bombings have been launched by the US unilaterally.
The US-backed Yemeni government, known in Yemen as the “government of hotels” since it’s based in Saudi Arabia, said that 11 people were killed in the US strikes, but the casualties have not been confirmed by the Houthis.
In a statement after the strikes, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea vowed the operations against commercial shipping would “escalate” in support of Gaza despite the US military pressure. He also said a Houthi missile struck the M/V Pinnochio, which he described as an American ship, but CENTCOM said the vessel was Singaporean-owned and Liberian-flagged and that the missile impacted the water.
President Biden’s bombing campaign against the Houthis, which began on January 12, has only escalated the situation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, were previously targeting Israel-linked shipping but expanded their targets to American and British commercial shipping.
US officials have acknowledged they don’t know if the bombing campaign is hurting the Houthis, and the group is known to be extremely resilient since it endured a brutal US-backed Saudi-UAE war and blockade that killed at least 377,000 Yemenis from 2015-2022. More than half were killed by starvation and disease caused by the siege.
The Houthis have been clear that they would stop their Red Sea attacks once the Israeli onslaught in Gaza comes to an end, and US officials have acknowledged they would likely be true to their word. But instead of pressuring Israel to agree to a ceasefire, the US continues to escalate its strikes against the Houthis.