U.S. military targets Houthi radar sites in Yemen after a merchant sailor goes missing
DUBAI — The U.S. military unleashed a wave of attacks targeting radar sites operated by Yemen’s Houthi rebels over their assaults on shipping in the crucial Red Sea corridor, authorities said Saturday, after one merchant sailor went missing following an earlier Houthi strike on a ship.
The attacks come as the U.S. Navy faces the most intense combat it has seen since World War II in trying to counter the Houthi campaign — attacks the rebels say are meant to halt the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. However, the Iranian-backed rebels often target ships and sailors who have nothing to do with the war while traffic remains halved through a vital cargo corridor.
U.S. strikes destroyed seven radars within Houthi-controlled territory, the military’s Central Command said. It did not elaborate on how the sites were destroyed and did not immediately respond to questions. “These radars allow the Houthis to target maritime vessels and endanger commercial shipping,” Central Command said in a statement. The U.S. separately destroyed two bomb-laden drone boats in the Red Sea, as well as a drone launched by the Houthis over the waterway, it said.
The Houthis, who have held Yemen’s capital, Sana, since 2014, did not acknowledge the strikes or any military losses. That’s been typical since the U.S. began launching airstrikes targeting the rebels.
The U.S. says the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels launched anti-ship cruise missiles and hit a commercial vessel off Yemen, setting it on fire.
Meanwhile, Central Command said one commercial sailor from the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk cargo carrier Tutor remained missing after an attack Wednesday by the Houthis that used a bomb-carrying drone boat to strike the vessel. “The crew abandoned ship and were rescued by USS Philippine Sea and partner forces,” Central Command said.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said Saturday afternoon that the Tutor was “still on fire and sinking.”
The missing sailor is Filipino, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency, which cited Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac. He said most of the Tutor’s 22 mariners were from the Philippines.
“We’re trying to account for the particular seafarer in the ship and are praying that we could find him,” he reportedly said Friday night.
The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, killed three sailors, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. On Thursday they struck a Ukrainian-owned, Polish-operated cargo carrier on its way to Italy carrying wood, Central Command said, and one mariner was killed.
A U.S.-led airstrike campaign has targeted the Houthis since January, with a series of strikes May 30 killing at least 16 people and wounding 42 others, the rebels say.
The war in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians there, according to Gaza health officials, while hundreds of others have been killed in Israeli operations in the West Bank. It began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage.
“The Houthis claim to be acting on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza and yet they are targeting and threatening the lives of third-country nationals who have nothing to do with the conflict in Gaza,” Central Command said. “The ongoing threat to international commerce caused by the Houthis in fact makes it harder to deliver badly needed assistance to the people of Yemen as well as Gaza.”
Gambrell writes for the Associated Press.
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