The US has struck Houthi targets inside
Yemen in hopes
of stopping their attacks on vessels
in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
US Central
Command says its forces destroyed
two Houthi
anti-ship
missiles aimed at the critical waterway
that were prepared to launch.
White House
National Security
Council
spokesperson says the ongoing strikes
are taking away capability
from the Iran backed militants.
But so Houthi spokesperson said the group
will not stop going after vessels
they believe
are linked to Israel
and called the attacks by the US
and the UK
a quote, persistent act of aggression.
The US
president admitted Thursday
that the Houthis remain undeterred.
CNN's Scott McLean
is following this live from Istanbul.
Scott, great to see you.
We miss you in London, of course.
So if the Houthis remain undeterred,
by this, strategically,
what is the point?
Obviously,
the Houthis have been attacked by Saudi
Arabia on and off since 20, 15.
They've proven their resilience.
These US and UK strikes
also feed into that narrative
and their conception of the world
and what they want to communicate.
So what is the purpose is it purely
so that the US and its allies can say
we will put our money where our mouth is
if we say we're going to retaliate? We do
Yeah.
I mean, that's a great question, Bianca,
because there's no indication
at this point that these strikes
will stop on either side.
The Pentagon said yesterday
that, look,
we never said
that the stops
that the strikes from
the Houthis would stop immediately.
And so it seems like
this will continue on
because even though last week
when these air strikes began,
a US official figured
that about one third
or so of the Houthis
offensive capabilities
had been destroyed
and now there have been five
rounds of American strikes
and they continue to come.
There have been American
owned ships targeted
for each of the last three days
on Tuesday
and Wednesday, by the way,
those ships were actually hit by Houthi
missiles, though,
didn't
cause enough damage
to actually prevent them
from continuing to sail.
As you mentioned, the Houthis say
none of this is going to deter them
and President Biden
had a pretty interesting exchange
at the White House yesterday. Listen
here.
They are striking Yemen working
well.
When you say working there,
they stop a little bit
know there because they.
Yes,
the Houthis, by the way,
did make clear that ships
that had no links to Israel
or were not allied with
the West were free to pass.
In other words, Chinese.
Russian ships.
Good to go.
Retired U.S.
Army Major Mike Lyons is with me now.
So these airstrikes,
the US has been hitting sites
all in Yemen,
different places where they say
the Houthis are base.
Are they working to stop them?
President Biden said no.
Will they continue yes.
What's your reaction to that?
I think the president
is being brutally honest,
and that's a lot to do with the fact
that our response
has been in response
to what they've done.
And so it's not
been escalated whatsoever.
I think for us to restore
any kind of deterrence
there, we've got to go on
an offensive campaign for the next
30 to 35 days, make it very crystal clear
that we're going to take
as much military capability
away from the Houthis.
Well, how do you do that?
Look, when we talk about
has it stop the Houthis?
These are the attacks in November
and December inside the Red Sea.
You can see where the bottleneck is here
they have continuous
how could you stop them from doing this
so that thousands of military weapons
and capability,
especially the anti-ship
missiles, we're seeing them firing
at tankers now I mean,
that is now
you're going to potentially
create disasters within the red seas
that will last forever.
50 nations are being affected right now
because of what's going on here.
Two things.
Number one,
you have to
increase the level of attacks.
They have to be constant
almost 24, seven, again,
the air campaign, number one,
and the number two
to continue what we were doing
by cutting off their resupply.
We saw we lost two Navy SEALs last week
in that mission that we've done
that we've done missions
like that before, also in the past.
But we've got to cut off their capability
to eventually resupply
those military operations.
Again, if you look at Yemen here,
you can see where the Houthis are
in control over here.
For them to be resupplied, it
largely needs to be done by sea, by Iran.
That's right.
It's all coming here
from the Persian Gulf.
And we've got naval forces
in all these locations here.
And if you do
both of those things together,
it might make an impact.
But I still think it's
going to take 30, 35
40 days in order for this to happen.
So we should check back here then.
But again, overall,
the increase of airstrikes in order
call it a formal campaign,
make sure that we're telling the Houthis
we are not stopping until you stop.
You know,
as someone who has served before,
when you hear a leader
say what we're doing isn't working,
but we're going to keep doing it.
If you are serving right now
in the Red Sea,
how would that make you feel?
Well,
I think
the commanders,
they're going back to the president
and the Pentagon
with different kinds of options.
And likely one of those is to increase
this administration is kind of try
to thread the needle
with regard
to what their relationship is with Iran.
And they're not trying to escalate.
The bottom line is
Yemen is a very poor country.
It's not doesn't.
Not a good look
for the United States and Great Britain.
To be bombing
and creating the kind of chaos
within this country
that it's one of the poorest
in the entire Middle East.
So I think they're trying to thread
that needle to make sure
that the strikes are precise.
And military related only.
You're Mike Lawrence. Great to have you.
Thank you very much, Kate.