US defense chief says Houthis need to pay a price, vows to step up attacks

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that the US military would be stepping up its attacks on Yemen’s Houthis because of its continued attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea.

“You’ll see us increasingly place — use all the elements that are available to us in our national power to really begin to dial this down, dial it back,” Austin said about US efforts to degrade Houthi capabilities and their ability to conduct attacks.

Washington noticeably increased the tempo of its preemptive strikes on the Iran-backed group last month, including deploying B-2 bombers from the US for one operation.

Another US attack two weeks ago saw Houthi weapons storage facilities hit inside Yemen in an attack that involved the US Air Force and US Navy assets, including the F-35C. That attack was in response to a barrage of Houthi drones, anti-ship ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles that unsuccessfully targeted US Navy destroyers in the region.

The Houthis have also stepped up attacks on Israel. The latest US response also aimed to degrade the group’s ability to “threaten regional partners,” the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said after the Nov. 10 operations.

Over the weekend, the US withdrew its only aircraft carrier in the region, which was the main anchor of a US-led task force set up last year to deter the Houthis. While the task force, Operation Prosperity Guardian, has succeeded in escorting some commercial and merchant vessels, the Houthis continue to escalate and deploy more sophisticated attacks.

But the US defense secretary warned on Wednesday that this would change.

Highlighting the recent US attacks, Austin said the US would continue to work to take away as much capability from the Houthis as possible.

Asked whether a weakened Iran after Israeli attacks would impact the Houthis, Austin said: “The Houthis have been fairly persistent. I think, whereas in the — in days gone by, they would have considered themselves to be subordinate to Iran.

“Increasingly, we see them looking at themselves as being, you know, a partner and not so much subordinate.”

Austin warned that the Houthis would need to be held accountable for their continued attacks. “And they will be,” he vowed in a press conference from Laos.

The Houthis began attacking ships in and around the Red Sea one year ago in what they claim to be a solidarity campaign with Palestinians in Gaza.

The outgoing Biden administration removed the Houthis from the terror blacklist in one of their first foreign policy moves, only to redesignate them two years later.

Despite the withdrawal of the aircraft carrier, the Pentagon said on Tuesday that the US maintained ample assets in the region. “We maintain significant firepower in the Central Command Area of Responsibility to include F-16s, F-15s, and several B-52 bombers as well,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters.

At the start of the month, the US announced the deployment of additional ballistic missile defense destroyers, fighter squadron and tanker aircraft, and several B-52 long-range strike bombers to the region as preparations commenced for the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier to depart.