Yemen's Houthis claim responsibility for cruise missile strike in Israel

Table Of Content

• Yemen’s Houthis heading to Riyadh for ceasefire talks with Saudi Arabia
• MORE: State Department issues 'worldwide caution' alert amid Israel-Hamas war
• Israeli airstrike in Gaza’s south kills at least 9 Palestinians, including 6 children
• Israel says it has hit multiple Hezbollah targets in Syria and Lebanon since Gaza war began
• Quds-2

In a separate joint statement with the US-led coalition, the UK said that Houthi attacks constituted “an international challenge” and issued a warning to Houthi leadership. US forces determined the cruise missile presented an "imminent threat" to US Navy ships and other vessels in the region. Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government-in-exile that the Houthis are fighting, sought to distance itself from the attacks on Houthi sites as it tries to maintain a delicate detente with Iran and a cease-fire it has in Yemen. The Saudi-led, U.S.-backed war in Yemen that began in 2015 has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday it had tracked a "suspicious aerial target" which it confirmed was a cruise missile, The Times of Israel reported. Prior to the attack on Monday, all of the missiles Houthis have launched were intercepted by American coalition forces, the IDF or neighboring countries like Jordan, according to WION.

Yemen’s Houthis heading to Riyadh for ceasefire talks with Saudi Arabia

The United States has boosted its military presence in the region since the start of the Israel-Hamas war nearly two weeks ago.

MORE: State Department issues 'worldwide caution' alert amid Israel-Hamas war

It reviews the events and trends that have shaped this part of the war, the strategy behind Houthi missile attacks, and how Houthi militants have acquired these weapons. Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthis, announced on October 31 that the movement launched a “large number” of rockets, ballistic missiles and drones towards Israel. A U.S. Navy warship in the northern Red Sea on Thursday shot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched from Yemen that the Pentagon said might have been headed toward Israel. “Information about these engagements is still being processed and we cannot say for certain what these missiles and drones were targeting but they were launched from Yemen, heading north along the Red Sea, potentially towards targets in Israel,” he added. The USS Carney, which is currently stationed in the Northern Red Sea, successfully intercepted three cruise missiles and several drones that had been launched by Houthi forces in Yemen, according to Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon's press secretary. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels say their strikes on ships in the Red Sea as in response to Israel's military campaign in Gaza.

US says its forces strike unmanned surface vessel, anti-ship cruise missile near Yemen - Reuters

US says its forces strike unmanned surface vessel, anti-ship cruise missile near Yemen.

Posted: Sat, 17 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Israeli airstrike in Gaza’s south kills at least 9 Palestinians, including 6 children

The conflict between Israel and Palestinians — and other groups in the Middle East — goes back decades. Tempering the language and response, while aimed at preventing a wider war, has had the opposite effect of further emboldening the Houthis, Bowman said. “They’re now finally calling a spade a spade, and saying that, yeah, they’re trying to attack our forces, they’re trying to kill us,” he said. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah did not fully commit the group to the war in a highly anticipated speech on Friday but said that remains a real possibility depending on what Israel and its Western allies do next.

Acknowledging Friday’s assault as a direct attack on a U.S. warship is important, said Brad Bowman, a senior director at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. The U.S. and allies had also held off for weeks on striking Houthi weapons sites in Yemen, but they are now taking regular action, often destroying launch sites that are armed but have not fired, and are deemed an imminent threat. The CSIS Missile Defense Project’s monthly newsletter has info on the project’s latest publications, events, and missile defense news. Ian Williams was a fellow with the CSIS International Security Program and deputy director of the Missile Defense Project, specializing in missile defense and strategic forces, missile proliferation, and deterrence.

At a press briefing Saturday, Hagari said Israel has been trying to stop Hezbollah's “supply chain of ammunition and missiles,” which he alleged were being smuggled from Iran to Syria and then to Lebanon. The strike is a part of the US military's effort to deter the Houthis from further disrupting the global shipping lanes in the Red Sea. Just as some of the Houthi missiles appear to have fallen short of their marks due to the relatively long distance between Yemen and Israel, it could also be potentially costly and complicated for Israel to respond with sustained aerial strikes. Tzachi Hanegbi, the Israeli national security adviser, said the Houthi attacks were “intolerable” but declined to elaborate on what exactly an Israeli response might look like.

Navy may have to position more ships in the Red Sea if the U.S. commits to protecting Israel from a southern attack said Steve Ganyard, an ABC News contributor and a former Pentagon official. The missiles fired by the Houthis were engaged by SM2 missiles carried aboard the USS Carney, a U.S. official told ABC News. No information was released about what weapons platform aboard the Carney brought down the 8 drones.

The Iranian-backed Yemeni rebel group Ansar Allah, popularly known as the Houthis, may have cruise missiles capable of reaching Israel, US Department of Defense spokesperson Brigadier General Pat Ryder indicated during a 19 October press briefing. The Carney is equipped with various missile defense systems, though the Pentagon hasn't said which system was used to destroy the missiles. Seeking to avoid a regional war with Tehran, the US has not targeted Iran directly, instead going after some of its most powerful proxies in the region. It is an indirect way of trying to send a message to Iran’s leadership, which has grown increasingly nervous about the actions of some of the militant organizations it backs, CNN has reported. Iran funds, arms and supplies these groups to different degrees, but its leadership does not control them directly.

US, UK launch large-scale retaliatory strikes against Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen - ABC News

US, UK launch large-scale retaliatory strikes against Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen.

Posted: Fri, 12 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

The missiles and drones were launched by pro-Iranian Houthi rebels in Yemen amid a flurry of drone attacks against American troops in Iraq and Syria over the past three days, General Ryder said. The incidents underscored the risks that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas could spiral into a wider war. “We cannot say for certain what these missiles and drones were targeting, but they were launched from Yemen heading north along the Red Sea, potentially towards targets in Israel,” Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, told reporters. The United States yesterday conducted sea-launched cruise missile strikes against three radar sites on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook told reporters in a news briefing today. “The crew of the guided missile destroyer USS Carney , operating in the northern Red Sea earlier today, shot down three land-attack cruise missiles and several drones that were launched by Houthi forces in Yemen,” he said. The Missile War in Yemen is the first comprehensive review of missile and missile defense activity in the ongoing Yemen conflict.

One such aspect has been the extensive use of ballistic missiles, far more than any other conflict in recent history. With the assistance of Iran, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have fired hundreds of ballistic missiles to strike Arab coalition bases, population centers, and infrastructure. They have used armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to harass and assassinate coalition forces and attack economic targets in Saudi Arabia.

Last week, Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi was quoted as saying that if the U.S. directly intervened in the Gaza conflict his group would respond by firing drones and missiles, and take other military options. The preliminary U.S. assessment was that the USS Carney was not the target of any of the Houthi missiles or drones, according to multiple U.S. officials. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. "These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy and merchant vessels," CENTCOM said in a statement. In an effort to stop the attacks, the US and the United Kingdom have carried out a series of strikes against Houthi targets. The Israeli Defense Forces also confirmed Tuesday it tracked a “suspicious aerial target,” which it later confirmed was a cruise missile, according to the Times of Israel.

The Houthi movement in Yemen shot down a United States drone on Wednesday night, more than a week after effectively declaring war on Israel, raising fears of a regional escalation. Though the Biden administration and its allies have tried to calm tensions in the Middle East for weeks and prevent any wider conflict, the strikes in the Red Sea threaten to ignite one. The Houthis have yet to acknowledge how severe the damage was from the strikes, which they said killed five of their troops and wounded six others.

Their increasingly capable surface-to-air missiles, furthermore, have downed a number of coalition aircraft and at least three U.S. drones. On October 9, the USS Mason fired two Standard Missile-2 Block IV interceptors and an Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile in response to multiple cruise missiles launched at it and the USS Ponce off the coast of Yemen. The attack comes after a cruise missile launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen struck a UAE vessel on October 1. The missile attack included two missiles, one confirmed to have hit the water without an intercept and the other potentially having been intercepted by an SM-2, though this is unconfirmed. The first strikes on the U.S. ships were accompanied by the launch of ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia, including the longest range attack recorded during the conflict targeting central Saudi Arabia.

As part of the exercise, the group succeeded in luring Americans and Brits into large minefields, where dozens would be killed, the Sun reports. Footage released by Yemeni media showed Houthi forces carrying out military drills that simulated a violent and widespread confrontation against enemy forces that landed in Yemen, according to the UK outlet. President Biden has repeatedly warned Iran and its regional allies not to escalate tensions by getting involved. Iran has long provided support for Hamas in the form of training and ammunition, but the U.S. has said there's no clear evidence that Iran was directly involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. "But we stand ready and prepared to defend our partners and our interests, and we will act to do so."