US expects Houthis to retaliate for strikes, senior military official says

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US is expecting Yemen's Houthi rebels to carry out attacks in retaliation for overnight American and UK strikes that targeted the group's military infrastructure, a senior military official said Friday.

Joint Staff Director of Operations Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims said the Houthis have already fired "at least" one missile in retaliation, but said the rebels are likely currently attempting to ascertain "what capabilities still exist for them" following the joint strikes.

"Their rhetoric has been pretty strong, and pretty high, and we expect that they will attempt some sort of retaliation," Sims told reporters during a virtual briefing. "I would hope that they don't retaliate, but we're prepared in the event that they do."

Sims said that the overnight strikes conducted alongside the UK included an initial wave of strikes on targets in 16 locations followed by a follow-up series of sorties that hit 12 other positions. Each of the targeted sites held multiple targets, including missile launchers, radars and associated equipment.

In all, there were over 150 munitions that were fired from ships and aircraft, he said. The US is continuing to carry out what is known as a battle damage assessment to determine the extent of the damage that was inflicted, but Sims said he is "pretty confident" that significant damage was done.

"We know precisely the capability that the Houthis have been employing against international shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb," said Sims. "This was solely designed to get after the capability that is impeding international freedom of navigation in international waters, and we feel pretty confident we did good work on that."

The US and UK launched military strikes in Yemen late Thursday, following a string of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea that destabilized trading routes. The group, which says it targets Israeli-linked vessels in solidarity with the people of Gaza, said America and Britain will "pay a heavy price."

The Biden administration has said the strikes were "defensive" in nature, and were intended to erode the Houthis' ability to strike vessels in the Red Sea after over two dozen attacks took place there since mid-November.