The U.S.
military directly attacked Houthi rebels in Yemen for the first time
on Wednesday — firing Tomahawk cruise missiles at three rebel-held
radar stations on the Red Sea coast. The attack, which was in
retaliation for a failed missile attack on a U.S. Navy destroyer on
Sunday, risks drawing the U.S. further into the 18-month war.
In March
2015, a coalition of states led by Saudi Arabia began a U.S.-backed
bombing campaign against the Houthi forces, which four months earlier
had seized Yemen’s capital and deposed the country’s U.S.- and
Saudi-backed dictator. Since then, the U.S. has flown refueling
missions for Saudi aircraft, supplied targeting intelligence, and
resupplied the Saudi effort with tens of billions of dollars of
weapons.
While the
U.S. has previously conducted direct attacks in Yemen against al
Qaeda — which controls vast territory in central and eastern Yemen
— it had not directly engaged Houthi forces before.
The
escalation began last week when the U.S. dispatched warships to the
Bab al-Mandab Strait — which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of
Aden — after the Houthis fired on and nearly sank a ship from the
United Arab Emirates. The UAE is a part of the Saudi-led bombing
coalition, which has maintained a strict naval blockade of the
country since the war began.
When the
Houthis fired on the U.S.S. Mason earlier this week, sailors were
able to deploy countermeasures and the ship was not damaged.
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report:
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