This has Iran’s fingerprints all over it from the Houthi’s….
(There have been thoughts that Iran has wanted to escalate anti-Israel issues across the Middle East…)
America and Brtish fighter jets and tomahawk missles struck targets in Yemen….
The Houthi’s have been first firing rockets at Israel and recently against shipping in the Red Sea….
Their reason given for their action has been the discontent with the Isreali/Gaza situation…
The UN has demanded the Houthi cease their actions…
Iran has seized a oil tanker in the gulf of Oman also today….
The US military has launched strikes against multiple Houthi targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, a US official told CNN.
The strikes were from fighter jets and Tomahawk missiles.
They mark a significant response after the Biden administration and its allies warned that the Iran-backed militant group would bear the consequences of repeated drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
The strikes are a sign of the growing international alarm over the threat to one of the world’s most critical waterways. For weeks, the US had sought to avoid direct strikes on Yemen because of the risk of escalation in a region already simmering with tension, but the ongoing Houthi attacks on international shipping compelled the coalition to act.
Senior administration officials briefed congressional leadership earlier Thursday on the US plans, according to a congressional source.
The strikes come as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin remains hospitalized following complications from a surgery for prostate cancer.
Though the US has carried out strikes against Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, this marks the first known strike against the Houthis in Yemen. They come at a time of huge tension in the Middle East as the US looks to ensure the war in Gaza does not spill out into the wider region. The Biden administration had been wary of striking the Houthis, worrying it could upset a delicate cease-fire between the militant group and Saudi Arabia that was achieved after years of war….
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Among the US’ concerns about taking direct action inside Yemen is the risk of upsetting a carefully brokered truce in the war in Yemen between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, which a US official previously told CNN the Biden administration considers one of its most significant foreign policy achievements.
The US and its allies issued a warning to the Houthis on January 3, saying in a joint statement that the Houthis “will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways.”….
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The Biden administration’s effort to build an international consensus against the Houthi violence was strengthened Wednesday when the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution voicing strong condemnation of the attacks. The resolution, which was sponsored by the United States and Japan, was approved 11 in favor and zero against, with abstentions by Russia, China, Algeria and Mozambique.
Tehran itself also has pursued aggressive action. Earlier Thursday, the Iranian navy seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman while it was en route to Turkey, the U.S. Navy said. The crew’s status is unknown. Iran now holds five ships and 90 crew members “hostage,” officials said….
Update….
Some American allies in the Middle East, including the Gulf nations of Qatar and Oman, had raised concerns that strikes against the Houthis could spiral out of control and drag the region into a wider war with other Iranian proxies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Tehran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq.
But on Thursday, the United States decided to act. Britain joined the United States in the attack against the Houthi targets as fighter jets from bases in the region and off the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower struck targets with precision-guided bombs.
“The United Kingdom will always stand up for freedom of navigation and the free flow of trade,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement.
The Netherlands, Australia, Canada and Bahrain also participated, providing logistics, intelligence and other support, according to U.S. officials. At least one Navy submarine fired Tomahawk cruise missiles, the officials said.
The president called the response from the international community “united and resolute.” Bahrain was the only Arab nation to take part, and there were questions as late as Thursday afternoon whether the small kingdom would be willing to publicly acknowledge its role. In the end, it did….
And basically got cover from the UN Security Council to continue to be the World’s Policeman, benefitting everyone especially Europe and China by protecting the shipping lanes…I heard a podcast from Bloomberg, that largely only shipping container ships are getting attacked, not oil and gas tankers because of where those tankers are coming from… The Houthi’s have been fighting with the Saudi’s too…US should approve the sale of a shit ton of weapons to the Saudi’s and let them smash the Houthi’s from their side too…nothing improves a bi-lateral relation than blowing up the same enemy…Purely a Power Politics Prospective…
America IS the world’s cop….
PERIOD……
Trump doesn’t want that…..
But it IS in America’s interests NOT to have the Middle East ran by Iran’s Religious Leaders….
It sucks
But I see this as a Reality I feel