US strikes Houthis in Yemen again after Biden vowed to continue attacks
The White House on Friday announced that the U.S. conducted more strikes against Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen Friday morning.
"This morning, U.S. forces conducted three successful self-defense strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. This is the fourth preemptive action that the U.S. military has taken in the past week against Houthi missile launchers that were ready to launch attacks -- -in this case, anti-ship missiles," spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the daily press briefing.
The strikes come a day after President Joe Biden said that the U.S. military actions were not deterring the Houthis from attacks in the region, but that he would continue ordering the airstrikes.
Tomahawks were used in the last two days of strikes, launched from either a surface ship or a submarine, a U.S. official said.
"U.S. forces identified the missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined that they presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the U.S. Navy ships in the region," U.S. Central Command said in a statement. "U.S. forces subsequently struck and destroyed the missiles in self-defense," it said.
Kirby told ABC's Karen Travers that the previous U.S. strikes have had "good effects on degrading some of these Houthi capabilities. They still have some offensive capability and we're going to keep taking the actions we believe we need to take to defend ourselves."
Travers pressed Kirby on what he meant Thursday about the U.S. having "additional options available" to take concerning the Houthis, but he did not reveal what that could look like, other than being of the "military realm."
"The Houthis need to stop these attacks," he said. "They can make that choice. Clearly, they've made opposite choices. So, we have choices to make, too. And -- and we have options available to us as well. We'll continue to explore those options. Clearly, one of the options that we are and will continue to take are in the military realm as needed."
