United States Reveals “Pre-Emptive” Strikes Against Yemen
Jose Nino
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On February 26, 2024, the United States’ military Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that the US government launched what it described as “pre-emptive” air strikes against targets in Yemen.
These strikes destroyed missiles, unmanned vessels, and a drone.
CENTCOM revealed that it had hit three unmanned surface vessels and two anti-ship cruise missiles that were allegedly being prepared for an attack toward the Red Sea. The drone was hit above water.
It asserted that the attacks were carried out “to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US Navy and merchant vessels.”
Since November, the Houthis have launched dozens of attacks on vessels with commercial connections to Israel in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. These attacks aren’t random occurrences. They’re part of the Houthis’ campaign to stop Israel’s punitive campaign in Gaza, which has the full support of the US government.
Instead of halting the flow of military aid to Israel, the US and the UK have carried out strikes against Yemeni military forces in the Red Sea and Yemen proper.
For example, on February 24, US and UK authorities claimed that they had struck 18 Houthi installations across 8 sites in Yemen, which includes attacks on underground weapons and missile storage facilities, air defense systems, radars, and a helicopter.
In response to the attacks, Yahya Saree, a Houthi spokesman, promised that the Houthis would “confront the American–British escalation with more qualitative military operations against all hostile targets in the Red and Arab Seas.”
Yemen is looking like another quagmire that the US could be sleep-walking into. Rational minds need to take over and prevent the US from falling into another preventable conflict that will hasten its imperial decline.
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