Tonight the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that it had conducted a precision airstrike against a Houthi base in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. «On December 16, Yemen time, US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted a precision airstrike against a key command and control facility operated by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Iranian-controlled territory. Houthis in Sana’a, Yemen,” CENTCOM said in a statement. CENTCOM added that the affected facility “was a coordination center for Houthi operations, such as attacks against US Navy warships and merchant vessels in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The attack reflects CENTCOM’s ongoing commitment to protecting U.S. and coalition personnel, regional partners, and international shipping.”
Since the outbreak of war in Gaza last October, Houthi rebels have stepped up military operations in the region, sending drones against Israel and attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea. Faced with this escalation, the United States has established an international coalition composed of more than 20 nations, with the aim of protecting maritime traffic in the Red Sea from Houthi attacks. The coalition has repeatedly struck the infrastructure and weapons systems of the Houthi rebels located in the Yemen. Last week, CENTCOM reported that its forces successfully repelled Houthi-led attacks against the US Navy and American-flagged vessels in the Gulf of Aden.
In the official communication it is underlined that the destroyers of the US Navy, USS Stockdale (DDG 106) e USS O’Kane (DDG 77), managed to neutralize a series of bombs launched by the Houthis while transiting the Gulf of Aden, during the attacks which occurred on both Monday and Tuesday. The Houthis were not intimidated by the attacks and declared: “Our campaign against the Zionist enemy will continue, while the assaults on American and British ships will not end.” On Monday morning, an Israeli Navy missile vessel neutralized a drone from Yemen flying over the Mediterranean Sea. According to the IDF, the drone was intercepted before it could enter space. A few hours later, warning sirens were activated in large areas of central Israel due to the launch of a ballistic missile also from Yemen. The IDF then confirmed that the missile was shot down by the IAF before it reached Israeli territory, specifying that the activation of the sirens occurred to prevent possible damage from the fragments of the downed missile.
Iranian weapons
Since 2009, Iran began transferring increasingly sophisticated weaponry to the Houthi rebels in Yemen while since 2015, the Go Qodsthe foreign operations department of Iranian Revolutionary Guardssupplies components for missiles intended for assembly on Yemeni territory. This influx of weapons, combined with training and support from military advisors, allowed the tribal militia to evolve into a well-organized armed force equipped with modern equipment. For arms trafficking, the Qods Force predominantly used dhows, (traditional fishing vessels), exploiting shipping routes through the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa, in an attempt to evade patrols by US and allied forces. “Iran has gone to great lengths to deliver some of its most effective weapons, overcoming many logistical obstacles,” he explained. Farzin Nadimisenior researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policyin an interview with The Iran Primer. In addition to Iranian supplies, the Houthis have obtained weapons by seizing them from the Yemeni military, purchasing them on the black market or receiving them from other tribes. However, the most advanced military technologies were supplied directly by Tehran.
In late 2023, the Houthis demonstrated enough audacity to attack US warships in the Red Sea. They were the first to employ anti-ship ballistic missiles, although most assaults against military and commercial vessels were unsuccessful. Already by mid-2024, the group had conducted more than 100 attacks against targets in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and against rival Yemeni forces, as well as dozens of offensives against shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, using weapons supplied from Iran. The Houthis have missiles with an estimated range of up to 2,000 kilometers and drones with the ability to reach targets 2,500 kilometers away from launch. They use a combination of Iranian technologies and commercially available materials to assemble the drones locally. On July 19, 2024, the Houthis carried out an unprecedented attack on Tel Aviv (without causing any casualties), using a suicide drone. The Samad-3 was modified to follow an indirect trajectory of approximately 1,615 kilometers from Yemen towards Israel. On September 30, the Israeli army announced that it had conducted a massive airstrike against Houthi targets in Yemen, in response to yet another attack directed against Israeli territory. According to Tel Aviv’s armed forces, the raids targeted power plants and port infrastructure in the city of Hodeidah, considered a rebel stronghold. Houthi-controlled Al Masirah TV channel showed images of firefighters battling a large fire, reporting that at least four people were killed and 33 others injured. The Houthis also specified that the attacks were concentrated in particular on the port of Rass Issa which was razed to the ground. Despite this, the Yemeni Shiite militia continues to attack Israel and its allies and it is certainly not a mystery to anyone who Donald Trump intends to close the game with them as soon as possible exactly as Benjamin Netanyahu.
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