Now on the scope of tonight's operation,
what we know so far.
I want to go to CNN's Alex Marquardt.
So let's talk about the strikes,
what we know about the targets.
Well, Anderson,
the importance of the Red Sea
cannot be denied.
You have 15% of the global seaborne trade
that passes through here.
And if you look down here,
this is the bubble Mandeb Strait,
which is an absolutely critical,
narrow area
that ships
go through into the Red Sea and then up
to the Suez Canal.
There were more than a dozen strikes
across Yemen from north to south,
across a variety of targets.
We're learning more
and more by the minute,
really, of what these these targets were,
but they were at least
in five different locations,
if not more, in
and around the capital of Sana'a
over here
on the western coast of Yemen,
in Al Hudaydah,
and then in several other locations
up and down
the this North south axis in Yemen.
Now, we are hearing from
both the coalition
that carried out these strikes
as well as the Houthis.
The Houthis have said
that a number of air bases
and airports
were hit along with several camps.
They mentioned the 22nd Brigade
camp in the Taiz district,
which is down south.
This is what we're learning
from this coalition, which,
of course,
the US is really leading
in terms of the assets
that were brought to bear.
They had radar systems,
they had drone storage and launch sites.
As Oren touched on,
the drones have been absolutely
a critical part of those attacks
that the Houthis
have been carrying out
ballistic and cruise missile
storage and launch sites.
And then in terms
of what assets were used, this is just
what the US used in tonight's
series of strikes.
We also know
that the RAF, the British Air Force,
as well as a British destroyer,
they have been out there,
but the USS Eisenhower
Strike Group
has basically been out in the Red Sea,
serving as a deterrent
to Iran and other countries.
The US trying to send a message
to not widen this conflict
with that very formidable strike group.
But fighter jets, US
fighter jets were used to carry out
tonight strikes along with ships.
We don't know exactly which ones yet,
but we do have the name of the submarine
that was used
as a guided missile submarine
called the USS Florida.
Very notable that the US
military is telling us tonight
the name of the submarine
and they both the surface ships
and the top
and the submarine
fired these land missiles.
These are essentially surface
to surface missiles, Tomahawk
missiles against this.
More than a dozen locations inside Yemen.
So a formidable amount of force
brought to bear tonight in these strikes
all across Yemen, Anderson.
And obviously,
we don't know
if this is the end of these strikes
or if this will be an ongoing operation.
Let's talk
more about the
what's behind the US decision
to launch the strikes now?
Well, quite simply, as I think M.J.
was just saying,
this was
the strikes that we saw
with the attempted attacks by Yemen
just two days ago on Tuesday.
The biggest yet involving
drones, ballistic and cruise missiles,
was essentially the straw
that broke the camel's back.
There have been repeated warnings
by the US and others to the Houthis
to essentially knock it off.
We have seen
the US carry out responses against
Iranian backed
militant groups in Iraq and Syria.
We had not yet seen
any kind of US response
against the Houthis in Yemen,
and that is in large part
because they do threaten
this waterway,
but essentially having choke this off.
The US
now trying to send the message
to the Houthis
that they need to back down.
They're essentially trying
to punch them in the nose, bloody them
and get them to stop.
Whether that will work, Anderson,
is now the major question.
Of course, the big
foe here in the region is Iran.
They back forces in Yemen, in Iraq
and Syria,
in Lebanon
with Hezbollah, of course,
and then Hamas in Gaza.
So as Oren was saying,
the Houthis have vowed to respond.
So it remains to be seen
whether there will be
some kind of escalation here
or whether the US
and these other countries
have sent the message
that they are intending to send tonight.
This is absolutely critical,
not just in terms of the potential
for a widening war,
but for global commerce
because of the amount of shipping
that goes through here.
Now you have ships being forced
to not go through the Red Sea.
Instead go
south around
the Cape of Good Hope in Africa,
which makes things
a lot more complicated,
a lot more expensive.
And we should point out
a senior member of the Houthis,
Abdul Salam, to have made
a statement
on Thursday warning, quote,
We will confront America,
make it kneel down,
burn its battleships and all its bases
and everyone who cooperates with it,
no matter the cost.
He went on to say,
we will tread on America with our feet.
Remains to be seen.
What, if any, response they may have to
this latest attack.
Just moments ago, CNN's
Manu Raju got a statement
supporting the strikes from Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
It reads in part, and I quote,
President Biden's decision
to use
military force against these
Iranian proxies is overdue.
The United States
and our allies must leave
no room
to doubt that the days of unanswered
terrorist aggression are over.
Joining us now to former NATO
supreme allied commander,
retired Army General Wesley Clark,
retired Air Force
General Philip Breedlove
with us as well
from Israel, CNN international
diplomatic editor Nic Robertson.
General Clark,
let me start with you and wonder
what your reaction is
to news of these strikes.
What do you make of
what we've seen so far?
Well, I think it's a good first step.
I think it could have happened sooner.
I'm glad we have a coalition.
And, you know,
when you're dealing with something
like this, Anderson,
you don't want to have
to do this in the first place.
But when you do,
you must obtain escalation dominance.
So I didn't see anything in the reports
about taking out the boats.
So there are boats.
They've been used to try to attack
shipping routes,
take out the boats,
take out
every means
that the Houthis have to get at these
shipping areas wherever they were.
The minefields are,
the mines are station.
Now, the Iranians pulled their
a destroyer back,
so so they're trying to run from this.
And that's the next step
is to do something with Iran.
But for now, it's on the Houthis.
And so they either stop
or we will have to escalate
what we're doing.
It's all a matter
of getting the targeting.
The intelligence is so critical
we can strike anything in there
and probably hit it
if we know what we're after.
So I'm sure we've
been preparing the
strike package for a while,
but we're going to have to probably
go back again and harder.
And they're going to it's a game
and they're learning from our strike.
They're figuring out what we know. So
this is just the beginning
of this, unfortunately.
General Breedlove,
do you have a sense of how sophisticated
the Houthies are in terms
of the weaponry
that that they have at their disposal?
Well,
remember that
all roads in the Middle East
lead back to Iran.
So they are being fed capabilities
that are beyond
what they would have created
in their in their country.
And this is what this is all about.
We have a strategic defensive issue.
We have lost
what a deterrence we've had in this area.
130 strikes against our people, 27
against international shipping,
one boat being held.
And so our deterrence has to be regained
and we've lost the initiative.
We are now
reactive rather than proactive.
And I think this is the first step
to begin to be proactive
and try to reestablish
deterrence, much like West
and others, just talked about.
We have to make Iran
and all of their proxies understand
that they will have to pay a cost
for the things they're doing.
It's a little slow in coming,
but now maybe we will begin to regain
that initiative
and reestablish
the deterrence
that we once held in this area.
So, General Breedlove,
in terms of the Houthis,
what does that look like?
I mean,
General Clark had talked about going
after mines,
after boats that they have access to.
I mean, how many other kind of targets
do you think there are?
How long can this go on for?
Well, I think there are
many yet to be struck.
We heard today that they were moving
some of their best get into bunkers
that were built for a different part
of a different war.
And so they know we're coming after them.
And the good news is,
I think we demonstrated to them today
that we have good intelligence
of where they are
because we did
strike value targets today.
And I think we just have to increase
the cost, as was mentioned,
increase the cost
so that they know
this is not going to be
a profitable venture.