United States: US President, Mr. Joe Biden, has vowed to keep hitting the Houthis in Yemen as he admits military action against the rebel group has not stopped attacks on commercial shipping.
On Thursday, following the US’s fifth round of strikes against targets in Yemeni regions under Houthi control, Biden delivered his remarks.
Two anti-ship missiles that the US Central Command (CENTCOM) determined posed an “imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region” were destroyed, the command said in a statement.
When reporters asked whether the strikes against the rebel group were having an effect, Mr. Biden admitted that attacks on foreign ships in the Red Sea had not been prevented.
It would be up to the Houthis to decide to cease the attacks, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh stated in a later briefing.
Ms. Singh stated that it was in the group’s “best interests” to put an end to the attacks, saying, “We never said that the Houthis would immediately stop.”
“You’ve seen that we’ve been able to degrade and severely disrupt and destroy a significant number of their capabilities since Thursday. But it’s really on them when they decide that they want to stop interrupting commercial shipping, innocent mariners that are transiting the Red Sea,” Ms. Singh remarked.
In addition, Singh stated that the US saw its actions as self-defence and that it was not at war with the Houthis.
Later on Thursday, the Houthis released a statement claiming that they had launched a missile attack in the Gulf of Aden against the US ship Chem Ranger, resulting in “direct hits.”
According to CENTCOM, the rebel group attempted to hit the US-owned tanker with two missiles, but they were unable to hit it.
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