Jan. 8 (UPI) — U.S. Central Command attacked Houthi targets in Yemen on Wednesday, marking the first U.S. strikes against the Iran-proxy militia in 2025.
The U.S. forces hit two Houthi underground advanced conventional weapon storage facilities with what it called multiple precision strikes in regions of Houthi-controlled Yemen, CENTCOM said.
The facilities were reportedly used by the Houthis to attack U.S. Navy and merchant ships in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
“The strikes are part of CENTCOM’s effort to degrade Iranian-backed Houthi attempts to threaten regional partners and military and merchant vessels in the region,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
The attacks were the first by CENTCOM in Yemen since Dec. 31 and come a day after Houthi spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Sare’e said on X that it had thwarted an earlier strike by the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman.
CENTCOM has not commented on the Houthi claim.
During a regular Pentagon press conference on Wednesday, Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh reiterated that U.S. policy concerning the Houthi rebels is to degrade their military capabilities in Yemen.
However, she stated that the United States “never said … we were going to take every capability off the map.”
“But, every single time we conduct a dynamic strike or do the strikes that you saw CENTCOM announced earlier this morning, that further degrade their capabilities and takes things off the map that they can use against commercial ships and our own Navy ships,” she said.
The Houthis have been attempting to maintain a maritime blockade of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November, attacking U.S. military and other vessels transiting the vital maritime channel, claiming it is in solidarity with the Palestinian people, tens of thousands of whom have been killed by Israel amid its 15-month-old war against Hamas, another Iran-proxy militia, in Gaza.
Since enforcing the blockade, the Houthis have launched more than 130 attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Even Data nonprofit.
In response, the United States launched the multinational Operation Prosperity Guardian security initiative in December 2023 to protect vessels in the region. It has also launched numerous strikes into Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, hitting targets of the U.S.-designated terrorist organization with intents to degrade its military capabilities.