VIDEO BY AP
The United States and Britain reached 36 Houthi goals in Yemen on Saturday in a second wave of attacks aimed at further neutralizing Iranian-backed groups that have relentlessly targeted U. S. and foreign interests in the continuing war between Israel and Hamas. The most recent measures against the Houthis have been introduced through warships and warplanes.
AS1 JAKE GREEN/DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE VIA AP/FEB. 3
In this symbol provided through the Ministry of Defence, an RAF Typhoon aircraft takes off to make new moves opposed to the Houthi army’s objectives in Yemen, from RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus.
CPL SAMANTHA DRUMMEE/MINISTRY OF DEFENSE VIA AP/FEB. 3
In this symbol provided through the Ministry of Defence, an RAF FRG4 Typhoon aircraft is positioned to conduct additional movements opposing Houthi army objectives in Yemen, from RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus.
JERUSALEM >> After a weekend of retaliatory strikes, the U. S. has warned Iran and the militias it arms and budgets that it will launch more strikes if U. S. forces in the Middle East continue to come under attack, but that it does not need an “overt reaction. “military crusade of “war of war” throughout the region.
“We’re ready to deal with anything that any organization or any counterpart tries to attack us,” said Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser. Sullivan said Iran would expect “a swift and forceful response” if. . . and none of its representatives – “decides to respond directly” against the United States.
Sullivan delivered the warnings during a series of interviews with TV news shows after the U.S. and Britain on Saturday struck 36 Houthi targets in Yemen. The Iran-backed militants have fired on American and international interests repeatedly in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.
On Friday, an airstrike in Iraq and Syria targeted other Iranian-backed militias and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three Americans in Jordan last weekend. The United States responded against Houthi targets on Sunday.
“We cannot rule out long-term attacks through Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria or the Houthis,” Sullivan said. He added that the president had told his commanders that “they will also have to be located to respond to additional attacks. “”
The U. S. blamed the Jan. 28 attack on Jordan’s Tower 22 base on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias. Iran has tried to distance itself from drone strikes, the militias are acting independently of their leadership.
Biden “is not in favor of a broader war,” Sullivan said, when asked about the possibility of domestic measures in Iran that would widen the standoff in that volatile region. But when asked about the option of direct escalation through the Iranians, he said: “If they decided to respond directly to the United States, they would be met with a swift and forceful reaction from our side. »
While pledging to respond “in a sustained manner” to new aggression against Americans, Sullivan said he would “describe this as an open-ended military campaign. “
Still, he said, “we intend to bring to light more measures and moves to continue to send a transparent message that the United States will respond when our forces are attacked or our others are killed. “
There will be more steps taken, he said. “Some of those steps will be seen. Some may not be seen.”
The U. S. attack on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria hit more than 85 targets at seven sites. These included command and headquarters, intelligence centers, rocket and missile centers, ammunition and drone storage sites, and other services connected to the militias or the Islamic Revolutionary Party. The Guards’ Quds Force, the expeditionary unit that manages Tehran’s relations with regional militias and arms them.
So far, Biden’s leadership has given the impression of not directly targeting Iran or senior Quds Force leaders within its borders.
The US military has no confirmation of civilian casualties resulting from the attacks, Sullivan said. “What we do know is that the objectives we achieved were surely valid objectives from the point of view of containing the weapons and the body of workers attacking the US forces. We are confident in the objectives we have achieved.
Some militias have posed a threat to U. S. bases for years, but the groups have intensified their attacks in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas, following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed another 1,200 people and took 250 hostages. More than 27,000 people have been killed during Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza, the territory’s health ministry said.
The Houthis have carried out missile or drone attacks almost against advertisements and army ships transiting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and have made it clear that they have no objective of reducing their crusade despite the new foreign force in charge of protection ships. on this important waterway.
U.S. strikes overnight Sunday struck across six provinces of Yemen held by the Houthi rebels, including in Sanaa, the capital. The Houthis gave no assessment of the damage but the U.S. described hitting underground missile arsenals, launch sites and helicopters used by the rebels.
“These attacks will not deter Yemeni forces and the country from defending Palestinians against professional and Zionist crimes,” Houthi army spokesman Brigadier General Brigadier General said. General Yahya Saree said. The aggressors’ air strikes will not go unanswered. »
Meanwhile, Iran has warned the United States of the threat to attack two cargo ships in the Middle East, long suspected of serving as transit bases for Iranian commandos. Iran’s attack on the Behshad and Saviz ships turns out to be a sign of Tehran’s growing unease with U. S. measures in the region.
The ships are registered as advertising shipping ships for a Tehran-based company that the U. S. Treasury has authorized to serve as a front for the state-owned Islamic company Iran Shipping Lines. The Saviz, and later the Behshad, have been prowling the Red Sea. off the coast of Yemen for years, suspected of serving as espionage posts for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
In the Iranian normal military’s video statement, a narrator describes the ships as “floating cabinets. ” The narrator describes the Behshad as helping an Iranian project to “combat piracy in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. ” But Iran is not known to have participated in any of the recent campaigns against Somali piracy in the region following the Houthi attacks.
Just before the start of the new campaign of U. S. airstrikes, the Behshad headed south toward the Gulf of Aden. It is now docked in Djibouti, East Africa, off the coast of a Chinese military base in the country.
It ends with a warning superimposed on a montage of photographs of U. S. warships and an American flag.
“Those who engage in terrorist activities against Behshad or the vessels endanger foreign shipping lanes and security and assume global duty of potential long-term foreign risks,” the video reads.
The U. S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet in the Middle East declined to comment on the threat.
The Saviz is now in the Indian Ocean, near where the U. S. says Iranian drone strikes have recently targeted the ships.
Sullivan has appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” ABC’s “This Week,” CNN’s “State of the Union” and CBS’s “Face the Nation. “
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