The U. S. military has unleashed a wave of attacks on radar sites operated through Yemen’s Houthi rebels following their attacks on ships in the Red Sea corridor, the government said yesterday, after a merchant seaman went missing following an earlier Houthi attack on a ship.
The attacks come as the U. S. Navy faces the heaviest fighting it has experienced since World War II to counter the Houthi campaign, attacks that rebels say are aimed at ending the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
However, attacks through Iranian-backed rebels mean the Houthis are targeting ships and sailors that have nothing to do with the war, while traffic remains halved in a major hall for shipments of goods and energy between Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
Photo: AP
The U. S. measures destroyed seven radars in Houthi-controlled territory, U. S. Central Command said.
He did not specify how the sites were destroyed and did not respond to questions.
“These radars allow the Houthis to target maritime vessels and endanger shipping,” the central command said in a statement.
The United States destroyed two bomb-laden drones in the Red Sea, as well as a drone introduced by the Houthis over the waterway, he said.
The Houthis, who have controlled Yemen’s capital Sana’a since 2014, have not declared either the army’s movements or losses. This has been a typical phenomenon since the United States began launching airstrikes against the rebels.
Separately, Central Command said a sailor from the Greek bulk carrier Tutor, flying the Liberian flag, is still missing after an attack Wednesday by the Houthis, who used a bomb-carrying drone to attack the ship.
“The team abandoned the shipment and was rescued via the USS Philippine Sea and associated forces,” the central command said, adding that “the Tutor remains in the Red Sea and is slowly taking on water. “
The U. S. Navy has been preparing for decades to potentially fight the Soviet Union, and later Russia and China, but, far from becoming a world power, it finds itself engaged in a fight against the Houthis.
The fight pits the U. S. Navy’s project to keep foreign waterways open to an organization whose former arsenal of attack rifles and pickup trucks has a likely inexhaustible source of drones, missiles and other weapons.
The Houthis have carried out more than 50 attacks on ships, killed three sailors, captured one ship and sank since November last year, the U. S. Maritime Administration said.
A U. S. -led crusade of air movements has targeted the Houthis since January, with a series of moves on May 30 killing at least 16 other people and wounding 42 others, according to the rebels.
The Houthis say the strikes are aimed at preventing war in Gaza and supporting the Palestinians, but they come as they try to control their positions in Yemen.
“The Houthis claim to be acting on behalf of the Palestinians in Gaza and yet they are attacking and risking the lives of third-country nationals who have nothing to do with the confrontation in Gaza,” Central Command said. The current risk to foreign industry is making it more difficult to deliver much-needed aid to the other peoples of Yemen and Gaza. “
All the symptoms suggest that the war will intensify, putting American sailors, their allies, and fishing boats in greater danger.
“I don’t think other people realize how lethally serious what we’re doing is and how ships continue to be threatened,” said U. S. Navy Cmdr. Eric Blomberg of the USS Laboon.
“We’ll only have to do it once,” he said. The Houthis only have to achieve once. “