The U.S. announced late Wednesday that it had conducted multiple strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebel group, targeting its underground bunkers with stealth bombers.
U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement online that its forces had conducted “multiple, precision airstrikes on numerous Iran-backed Houthi weapons storage facilities within Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.”
The strikes from the U.S. are a major escalation in the response to the rebels’ attacks on shipping routes in the Red Sea that have gone on for much of the last year. The attacks may also serve as a warning sign to Iran, who has backed the Houthi rebels, as tensions in the region rise in response to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran-backed militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
Centcom said the Houthi facilities that were struck held various “advanced conventional weapons” that have been used to target the U.S. and other vessels. The Houthis have carried out attacks on international and commercial ships in waters in the region for much of the past year in response to the ongoing war in Gaza.
“These actions were taken to degrade the Houthi’s capability to continue their reckless and unlawful attacks on international commercial shipping and on U.S., coalition and merchant personnel and vessels in the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden, and to degrade their ability to threaten regional partners,” the military said.
Centcom also noted that it worked with the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy to conduct the operation, using the Air Force’s B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers. The B-2 bomber demonstrates the United States’ ability to reach its target “when necessary, anytime, anywhere.”
The military said damage assessments are underway, but initial reports do not indicate any civilians were killed in the strike.
Iran, which recently targeted Israel with strikes, had no immediate comment on the strike, The Associated Press reported.
The B-2 bomber is rarely used by the U.S. military because each aircraft is worth about $1 billion. The last time it was used in combat was in 2017 against Islamic State group targets in Libya, killing more than 80 fighters, the AP reported.