A series of important airstrikes on the evening of February 3 targeted the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. These are one of a series of rounds of airstrikes over the past month that are intended to stop the Houthi attacks on shipping.
So far, the Houthis have not been deterred. The new round of strikes come after the US also carried out strikes against Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria. Those strikes came after the militias killed three US soldiers in Jordan on January 27.
“As part of ongoing international efforts to respond to increased Iranian-backed Houthi destabilizing and illegal activities in the region, on February 3 at approximately 11:30 p.m. (Sanaa time), US Central Command forces, alongside UK Armed Forces and with the support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, conducted strikes against 36 Houthi targets at 13 locations in Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen,” US Central Command said on February 4.
US strikes carried out
The US also carried out other strikes on February 3, hitting six Houthi cruise missiles in Yemen. On February 4, in the morning, the US carried out another strike against an anti-ship missile that was prepared to launch. “This action will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US Navy vessels and merchant vessels,” the US said.
The goal of the various strikes is to hit a bunch of sites in Yemen, such as “underground storage facilities, command and control missile systems, UAV storage and operations sites, radars, and helicopters,” CENTCOM has said. This will “degrade” their capabilities. The question now is whether the strikes will actually work. Iran does not appear deterred. Pro-government media in Iran has highlighted the strikes.
Fars News and Tasnim News both had articles on them on February 4. Tasnim News also says that a pro-Iranian group carried out an attack on US forces in Syria. The US likely sees the Yemen arena as separate from the Iraq/Syria arena.
However, they are linked. Iran sees them as linked. It can key in the groups in support of any of these countries to carry out attacks when it wants.
The challenge now for the US is to stop these attacks in Iraq, Syria, and off the coast of Yemen. So far, the precision air strikes, mostly targeting terrorist infrastructure, have not appeared to halt the threats by the Iranian-backed groups.
However, the strikes against missiles in Yemen before they were fired represent an attempt to pre-empt the Houthis. This is a good next step in trying to slow down and then end the attacks on shipping.