B-2s bomb Houthi weapons sites inside Yemen

 

 B-2s bomb Houthi weapons sites inside Yemen

The Pentagon conducted a series of precision airstrikes against Houthi military sites inside Yemen early Thursday, with Air Force B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers and U.S. Navy assets in the region teaming up for the attack.

 The strikes targeted five “hardened underground facilities housing missiles, weapons components, and other munitions” allegedly used by the Iran-backed terrorists to attack commercial shipping vessels traveling along Yemen’s coast over the past 11 months, U.S. defense officials at Central Command announced late Wednesday.

 Rewind: Satellite imagery analysis from February showed the Houthis had “undertaken a major expansion of underground military facilities” in addition to the “caves and simple tunnels [the group used] in their earliest days,” researcher Fabian Hinz noted for the International Institute of Strategic Studies in the spring.

 Notable: CENTCOM forces have attacked underground weapons-storage facilities inside Yemen before, including in late March—but U.S. officials did not use B-2s for that operation.

 Trivia: B-2s seem to have last been used in combat nearly eight years ago for strikes against ISIS fighters in Libya.

 SecDef Austin (emphasis added): “This was 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,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that several observers interpreted as a warning to Iran. “The employment of U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers demonstrate U.S. global strike capabilities to take action against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere,” Austin said.

 Think-tank reax: “This strike is laudable, belated, and insufficient,” said Bradley Bowman of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “The Biden administration deserves credit for using B-2 bombers to target Houthi underground weapon stockpiles, but one wonders what took so long.”

 The Houthi attacks against non-military targets represent “the most serious assault on freedom of navigation and maritime commerce in decades,” Bowman told Defense One. “Let’s see whether this is a one-off or the start of a new and more effective strategy toward the Houthis and more importantly their terror patron in Tehran,” he added.