The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement that
the strikes targeted "numerous Iran-backed Houthi weapons storage
facilities within Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen that contained various
advanced conventional weapons used to target US and international military and
civilian vessels navigating international waters throughout the Red Sea and
Gulf of Aden."
CENTCOM said its assessment of the damage inflicted by the
strikes is ongoing and does not thus far "indicate civilian
casualties." The US military has routinely refused to investigate,
acknowledge, or apologize for killing civilians in Yemen and
elsewhere in the world.
The Houthis have repeatedly attacked vessels in the Red Sea
this year in what they say is an effort to stop Israel's decimation
of the Gaza Strip. The Biden administration has, in turn, bombed Yemen
multiple times this year, strikes that progressive US lawmakers have denounced
as dangerous as well as illegal given that the White House did not seek
congressional authorization, as required by the Constitution.
"Why is the US bombing Yemen—with a B-2 bomber no
less—with zero congressional authorization?" asked Sarah Leah
Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN),
following Wednesday's strikes. "Are these members of Congress literally
asleep or drugged?"
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Wednesday
that "at the direction" of President Joe Biden, he "authorized
these targeted strikes to further degrade the Houthis' capability to continue
their destabilizing behavior and to protect and defend US forces and personnel
in one of the world's most critical waterways."
The strikes on one of the poorest nations in the world,
Austin said, were "a unique demonstration of the United States' ability to
target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how
deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified"—a message that
observers interpreted as a warning to Iran.
"The employment of US Air Force B-2 Spirit long-range
stealth bombers demonstrate US global strike capabilities to take action
against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere," Austin added.
Wednesday's airstrikes reportedly marked the
United States' first use of the stealth bombers against Yemen, a country that
has been devastated by years of relentless attacks by a US-backed,
Saudi-led coalition.
The strikes came days after the Pentagon announced the
deployment of American troops and an advanced antimissile system to Israel
ahead of the Israeli military's expected attack on Iran.
A coalition of progressive lawmakers warned in
response to the troop deployment that "military force will not solve the
challenge posed by Iran."
"We need meaningful de-escalation and diplomacy—not a
wider war," the lawmakers said. "Addressing the root causes is the
only route to achieving long-term security and stability in the region. Nothing
in current law authorizes the United States to conduct offensive military
action against Iran. We risk becoming entangled in another catastrophic war
that will inevitably harm innocent civilians and may cost billions of US
taxpayer dollars."
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