ABU DHABI // The US navy launched missiles to destroy three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled territory on Thursday, a day after an American warship in the Red Sea was targeted for the second time in four days from areas under the rebels’ control.
The United States has provided logistical and intelligence support to the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, as well as billions of dollars worth of arms, but this is its first direct intervention against suspected rebel targets in the Yemen conflict.
The Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched at around 3am UAE time from the USS Nitze destroyer at territory north of the Bab Al Mandeb strait, US defence department spokesman Peter Cook said. President Barack Obama authorised the strikes following the recommendations of his top military officials.
The move comes after the USS Mason was unsuccessfully targeted on Sunday and Wednesday. The Mason and Nitze were sent to the strategic waterway, along with a third US ship, the Ponce, on Monday last week in response to a missile attack on a UAE-leased transport ship.
The Iran-backed rebels have claimed responsibility for the attack on the UAE ship, the Swift, but on Thursday denied firing at the US vessel.
“Those claims are baseless,” the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency quoted a military official allied with the rebels as saying.
Many observers believed the US would try to limit its involvement in the Yemen conflict and that the punitive strikes were likely to be a one-off, barring further attacks on American naval ships.
Mr Cook emphasised that the strikes were meant to be limited, and aimed at protecting the vital strait through which around 40 per cent of the world’s sea trade passes.
“These limited self-defence strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships, and our freedom of navigation in this important maritime passageway,” Mr Cook 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.”
Another defence official said the radar sites targeted by the US had been involved in the attacks on its ship and that they were located in remote areas – one in Ras Isa, one north of the port city of Mokha and a third near Kokha – where the chance of civilian casualties was slim.
As criticism of the Saudi-led intervention increases in Washington, the US administration has scaled back its support role for the coalition and announced earlier this week that its cooperation was under review.
That announcement followed allegations of a Saudi airstrike on a funeral for the father of a Houthi figure in Sanaa that killed at least 140 people and injured more than 500, including a number of high-ranking rebel officials. The toll also included political figures respected by both sides in the conflict who were seen as important to any eventual peace deal.
While Thursday marked the US’s first strike on suspected Houthi targets, Washington has continued to conduct drone strikes on Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen’s south-east as well as work with Emirati forces in counter-terrorism operations against the group.
But even if Washington hopes to avoid contributing to the sharp escalation in violence between the rebels and pro-government forces backed by the coalition, the risks of even a limited intervention were illustrated on Thursday by reports in Iranian media that Tehran had sent two of its own warships to the Gulf of Aden and the Bab Al Mandeb strait.
The destroyers, which were dispatched to the region on October 5, are for protecting commercial vessels, the Tasnim news agency reported.
On Tuesday, the US military said there was growing evidence that the Houthis were responsible for Sunday’s attack on the USS Mason, and that the missile system used may have been provided by Iran. They have yet to confirm which group was responsible for either Sunday or Wednesday’s attack.
tkhan@thenational.ae
* with additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
