The Defense Department is highly confident that yesterday’s strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen were effective in degrading the rebel group’s ability to carry out further attacks against commercial ships operating in the Red Sea, a senior Pentagon official said today. Army Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims II, director of operations for the Joint Staff, said joint forces from the U.S. and United Kingdom launched more than 150 munitions from both maritime and air platforms against more than 16 locations controlled by the Iranian-backed militants. “At this point, we continue to conduct battle damage assessment of the various targets,” Sims said. “We feel very confident about where our munitions struck.” A person stands watch aboard a ship at sea. The deliberate strikes, which were carried out with nonoperational support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands, were assessed to have hit multiple targets across each location. Those targets included command and control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities and air defense radar systems used by the Houthi’s to carry out attacks against vessels operating in international waters. “We know precisely the capability that the Houthis have been employing against the Red Sea and the Bab al Mandab,” Sims said. “This was solely designed to get after the capability that is impeding international freedom of navigation in international waters. We feel pretty confident we did good work on that.” Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III issued the order for U.S. Central Command Commander General Michael E. Kurilla to carry our the strikes yesterday following a series of attacks launched by Houthis against commercial ships operating in the region. “This action is intended to disrupt and degrade the Houthis’ capabilities to endanger mariners and threaten global trade in one of the world’s most critical waterways,” Austin said in a […]
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