US stealth bombers strike 5 Houthi weapons bunkers

The U.S. navy struck 5 bunkers housing weapons for the Houthis in Yemen on Wednesday, the most important strike on the militia group in months.

The Air Power used B-2 stealth bombers to hit the targets, described as “hardened underground weapons storage areas,” in response to a Pentagon launch.

“This was a novel demonstration of the USA’ means to focus on services that our adversaries search to maintain out of attain, regardless of how deeply buried underground, hardened or fortified,” U.S. Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin stated in an announcement.

After Hamas’ assault on Israel final October, the Houthis began attacking industrial ships touring by the Purple Sea, by which 15% of world commerce flowed earlier than final yr. The group’s acknowledged cause is to protest Israel’s warfare in Gaza, although Houthi strikes have at occasions focused ships that haven’t any ties to Israel.

In December 2023, the Pentagon launched Operation Prosperity Guardian, a mission led by the U.S. and involving a number of nations, which has sought to guard ships transiting the waterway. Most firms have as a substitute rerouted away from the Purple Sea, although, and U.S. Navy vessels situated there have confronted repeated assaults from the group, which America’s authorities considers a terrorist group.

The U.S. navy has since debated its objectives for the mission — and the way a lot it ought to try to wreck the Houthis’ means to launch such assaults, on condition that Iran continues to resupply the group’s stockpiles.

“On the path of President Biden, I approved these focused strikes to additional degrade the Houthis’ functionality to proceed their destabilizing habits and to guard and defend U.S. forces and personnel in one of many world’s most important waterways,” Austin stated.

In a separate assertion, U.S. Central Command stated the strikes hit bunkers full of “varied superior standard weapons” that had been used to hit American warships and civilian vessels. These shares included “missiles, weapons parts and different munitions,” CENTCOM stated, assessing for now there have been no casualties.