After a year of ineffectual efforts to stop the Yemen-based Houthi rebels from attacking ships on the Red Sea and firing the occasional missile at Israel, the Biden administration attacked Houthi weapons depots Wednesday.
B-2 bombers were used in the attack, according to a news release from U.S. Central Command.
“The employment of the B-2 bomber demonstrates U.S. global strike capabilities to reach these targets, when necessary, anytime, anywhere,” the statement said.
Why would the U.S. use nuclear capable B2 strategic bombers that flew round trip from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to strike Houthi targets in Yemen? Sends a strategic message to Iran and others that the U.S. can reach them.
-The B-2 stealth bomber used to carry out…
— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) October 17, 2024
In a statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin doubled down on the ability of the United States to attack anything it chooses.
“U.S. forces targeted several of the Houthis’ underground facilities housing various weapons components of types that the Houthis have used to target civilian and military vessels throughout the region,” Austin said, indicating that five weapons depots were hit.
“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,” he said.
Austin said the attack on the Iran-backed Houthis was approved by President Joe Biden.
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“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 Al-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden, and to degrade their ability to threaten regional partners,” the Central Command release said.
The release said in addition to the B-2s, Air Force and Navy assets were part of the attacks.
The Biden administration has been attacking the Houthis since January, according to NBC. The Houthis began their attacks on shipping in October 2023 to show solidarity with Hamas.
This attack was the first time B-2 bombers have been used against the Houthis, NBC reported.
The B-2 can carry up to 40,000 pounds of weapons, according to The Washington Post.
The B-2 is the only U.S. plane able to carry a 30,000-pound GPS-guided bomb — called the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator. A Pentagon representative declined to say if that was used in the attack to destroy underground weapons depots, according to The New York Times.
Writing on The War Zone, Tyler Rogoway said the use of a rare and deadly piece of the U.S. arsenal “sends a very specific and powerful message that only the B-2 can to the Houthis’ benefactor, Iran.”
Rogoway said that because the B-2 can carry America’s most powerful bunker-buster bombs, the use of B-2s against the Houthis indicates that America has weapons it can turn on Iran.
“The timing of such a strike makes perfect sense as it happened just as the tension between Israel and Iran is about to hit uncharted territory and the world awaits what is by all indications going to be a significant strike by Israel directly on Iran,” he wrote.
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