US military inches closer to responding to Houthi attacks in Red Sea: Sources

The US military is stepping up contingency plans for a response to Yemen’s Houthis, sources familiar with the matter said, after Washington’s multiple warnings failed to put an end to attacks by the Iran-backed group in the Red Sea.

“Watch this space in the coming days,” said one of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, to discuss sensitive deliberations.

A second source, also not speaking for attribution, said the attack could come within the next 24 hours.

Separately, the US military said that the Houthis launched an anti-ship ballistic missile from areas they control in Yemen on Thursday. The missile was fired into international shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden, according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM), and marked the 27th Houthi attack on international shipping since Nov. 19.

Washington and 12 other countries issued a warning last week directed at the Houthis. “The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways,” the joint statement said.

Calls have been increasing for the US to respond. However, some in the US government have voiced concerns over what a potential response could mean for the fragile ceasefire reached in Yemen, which the US has long pushed for.

Reports out of the UK suggested that a government meeting would be held to discuss the situation in the Red Sea and British participation in a joint operation with the US.

The US and UK carried out a joint operation this week where they shot down 18 drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles, and one anti-ship ballistic missile launched by the Houthis.

In the weeks following Houthi attacks on commercial tankers that it said would be targeted for their work with Israel, the US formed a naval task force to protect the ships.

The former CENTCOM chief, retired Gen. Joseph Votel, said the naval task force was a way to try to mitigate the risk but added that “without direct action consequences, it will likely not curb the [Houthis’] actions in a more rapid fashion.”

Votel previously told Al Arabiya English said the naval task force was a way to try to mitigate the risk but added that “without direct action consequences, it will likely not curb the [Houthis’] actions in a more rapid fashion.”

Former US Ambassador to Yemen, Gerald Feierstein, said the Houthis were trying to provoke a US military response, “which they believe would burnish their credentials as a core member of the Iranian ‘axis of resistance’” and be popular with many Yemenis who would see it as a demonstration of support for Palestinians.

But Feierstein, now the director of the Arabian Peninsula Affairs Program at the Middle East Institute, said the best strategy for the US was to continue the current defensive posture in the Red Sea, “which has been largely successful in defeating Houthi attacks, while supporting efforts to end the fighting in Gaza and continuing the Yemen negotiations.”