U.S. Military Targets Houthi Radar Sites in Yemen After a Merchant Sailor Goes Missing
A
fighter jet lands on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Red Sea on Tuesday,
June 11, 2024. The U.S.-led campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels has
turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World
War II. That's what its leaders and experts tell The Associated Press, when its
journalists visited U.S. ships off the coast of Yemen in recent days. (AP
Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Posted: June 16, 2024 --- Associated Press | By JON GAMBRELL
Published June
15, 2024, at 7:30am ET
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States military unleashed a wave of attacks targeting radar sites operated by Yemen's Houthi rebels over their assaults on shipping in the crucial Red Sea corridor, authorities said Saturday (June 15, 2024), after one merchant sailor went missing following an earlier Houthi strike on a ship. The attacks come as the U.S. Navy faces the most intense combat it has seen since World War II in trying to counter the Houthi campaign — attacks the rebels say are meant to halt the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
However, the Iranian-backed rebel assaults see the Houthis target ships and sailors who have nothing to do with the war while traffic remains halved through a corridor vital for cargo and energy shipments between Asia, Europe and the Mideast. U.S. strikes destroyed 7 radars within Houthi-controlled territory, said the military's Central Command (1 of 11 Unified Combatant Commands – see "Resources”). It did not elaborate on how the sites were destroyed and did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press.
"These radars allow the Houthis to target maritime vessels and endanger commercial shipping,” Central Command said in a statement. The U.S. separately destroyed 2 bomb-laden drone boats in the Red Sea, as well as a drone launched by the Houthis over the waterway, it said. The Houthis, who have held Yemen's capital, Sanaa, since 2014, did not acknowledge the strikes, nor any military losses.
That's typical since the U.S. began launching airstrikes targeting the rebels. Central Command said one commercial sailor from the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk cargo carrier Tutor remained missing after an attack Wednesday (June 12, 2024) by the Houthis that used a bomb-carrying drone boat to strike the vessel. "The crew abandoned ship and were rescued by USS Philippine Sea and partner forces,” Central Command said.
The "Tutor remains in the Red Sea and is slowly taking on water.” The missing sailor is Filipino, according to the State-run Philippine News Agency, which cited Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac. He said most of the Tutor's 22 mariners were from the Philippines. "We’re trying to account for the particular seafarer in the ship and are praying that we could find him,” he reportedly said.
The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, killed 3 sailors, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. A U.S.-led airstrike campaign has targeted the Houthis since January, with a series of strikes May 30 killing at least 16 people and wounding 42 others, the rebels say. The war in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians there, according to Gaza health officials, while hundreds of others have been killed in Israeli operations in the West Bank.
It began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7th, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages. "The Houthis claim to be acting on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza and yet they are targeting and threatening the lives of 3rd-country nationals who have nothing to do with the conflict in Gaza,” Central Command said. "The ongoing threat to international commerce caused by the Houthis in fact makes it harder to deliver badly needed assistance to the people of Yemen as well as Gaza.”
