Washington, Jan 14 (IANS): A US-led coalition launched airstrikes against targets in parts of Yemen held by Iran-aligned Houthis, escalating tensions in a region that is already dealing with the Israel-Hamas conflict that is in potential danger of expanding with the exchange of missiles between between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah in adjoining Lebanon.
US and UK forces carried out the airstrikes with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands. Germany, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea, joined them in a joint statement explaining the strikes.
More than 100 precision-guided missiles, including Tomahawk cruise missiles fire from the sea, struck 60 targets such as air defense systems, depots, launching sites and radars in 17 locations in Yemen. There were no reports yet of human casualties.
The coalition said in the statement that the strikes were carried out "in response to continued illegal, dangerous, and destabilising Houthi attacks against vessels, including commercial shipping, transiting the Red Sea".
"These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes," US President Joe Biden said in a statement, adding: "I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary."
A senior Biden administration official told reporters on condition of anonymity that the immediate provocation for these strikes was the "largest Houthi attacks in the Red Sea to date" earlier this week.
Nearly 20 drones and multiple missiles were launched in multiple salvos directly against US ships on January 9, the official said. This attack was foiled by US and UK naval forces working jointly as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian, the defensive coalition established last month in response to these attacks.
These retaliatory attacks are bound to escalate tensions in West Asia that are already dealing with the Israel-Hamas conflict, which is a matter of great concern for its potential to escalate and expand drawing in other countries. Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have exchanged missiles with Israeli forces and experts have warned that it will escalate into a full blown war.
The senior official who briefed reporters about the strikes justified them against the backdrop of the existing tensions saying: "The United States has carried a special and historic obligation to help protect and defend these arteries of global trade and commerce. And this action falls directly in line with that tradition."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed the strikes. "First of all, they are not proportional. All of these constitute disproportionate use of force," he told journalists in Istanbul. "It is as if they aspire to turn the Red Sea into a bloodbath."
The Biden administration has drawn criticism at home as well. And from Democratic lawmakers, although not for adding fuel to the fire.
"This is an unacceptable violation of the Constitution," Representative Pramila Jayapal, who heads the party’s progressive lawmakers, wrote on X. "Article 1 requires that military action be authorized by Congress." Citing the same Article, Ro Khanna, another Democratic lawmaker, wrote on X, "The President needs to come to Congress before launching a strike against the Houthis in Yemen and involving us in another middle east conflict."