U.S. and U.K. strike Houthi targets in Yemen for attacks on ships in Red Sea

Geoff Bennett:

Welcome to the NewsHour. The United States and Britain are launching strikes tonight against Houthi targets in Yemen.

Amna Nawaz:

The strikes are in response to numerous attacks against shipping vessels in the Red Sea in recent months. Nick Schifrin joins us now for the latest. Nick, so what do we know at this hour about these U.S. strikes?

Nick Schifrin:

Amna a U.S. official confirms that more than a dozen strikes have been hit inside Yemen with Tomahawk missiles fired by ships in the Red Sea, as well as jets that were flying off of those ships. The targets include logistical hubs, air defense systems and weapons storage site. And the weapons storage sites that we're talking about are the weapons that the Houthis have been using in order to attack U.S. ships and commercial ships in the Red Sea. That means drones, ballistic and cruise missiles. Uh, before this strike, I talked to former military officials who told me that the US does have intelligence that they believe that can degrade Houthi capabilities, degrade the ability for the Houthis to attack, uh, these ships, uh, both commercial and military, and even earlier, uh, a few months ago, try and attack Israel. Uh, but administration officials told me that they weren't sure that these strikes would actually deter the Houthis from continuing to launch strikes. And so what the U.S. tonight is expecting is a Houthi response and a couple of rounds of back and forth that was built into this strike tonight, according to US officials I talked to. And so the expectation again, is that the Houthis will strike back. And this is just the beginning. Amna earlier today, uh, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, one of the Houthi leaders, said that hey, look, if you strike us tonight, we're going to strike you harder than we already have.

Amna Nawaz:

Just the beginning of a new phase. But as you've noted before, this didn't happen overnight. This has been building for weeks. Remind us of the context in how we got here.

Nick Schifrin:

Yeah, there have been 27 attacks by the Houthis in Yemen on commercial shipping and U.S. shipping since the middle of November, since the last six weeks. Uh, it started with that brazen attack, photos of which you're seeing right there, Houthi militants landing with a helicopter on the deck of the Galaxy Leader. They actually kidnaped a dozen foreign officials that night, foreign sailors. The U.S. created a maritime coalition in order to defend shipping and ships going through this area, which is key to international shipping. Some 15% of all boats go through there. But clearly, those warships did not prevent the Houthis from continuing to launch this attack. Between December 16th and January 4th, the US Navy shot down 61 missiles and drones. And so that is what clearly has led to tonight's strike, the idea that many in the U.S. administration and also the British administration, which took part in this, wanted to try and restore that deterrence, wanted to strike back finally at the Houthis. And that's what's happened tonight. I'm gonna quickly, uh, the context for this, not only the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, but also the political advancement that the U.S. has really been pushing. The U.S. has been trying to end once and for all the civil war in Yemen between the Houthis and the coalition-backed government backed by Saudi Arabia. The progress that have been made in the last six months has actually been pretty good, and so what U.S. officials are wondering tonight is if a military strike actually takes away from that progress or, in fact, gives them leverage over the Houthis.

Amna Nawaz:

We'll see what happens next. Nick Schifrin, thank you so much for your reporting.

Nick Schifrin:

Thank you.