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The Middle East braced late on Thursday night local time for airstrikes from the U.S. and U.K. in Yemen in response to repeated terrorist attacks from the Iranian-backed Houthis.
The U.S.-led coalition telegraphed its punches in advance of the strikes after waiting months to respond to the dozen of attacks that have been carried out against merchant ships in international waters in the Red Sea.
“A surprise attack obviously gives us better odds of killing more Houthis, destroying their weapons, and keeping our service members safe. Telegraphing the attack decreases those odds,” said Rebeccah Heinrichs, senior fellow at Hudson Institute and the director of its Keystone Defense Initiative. “It is a maddening hallmark of this administration’s approach in responding to aggression. It seems to think by allaying the fears of our enemies, communicating that we won’t hurt them ‘too badly,’ they won’t hit us back ‘too much.'”
“We should be making our enemies fear us,” Heinrichs told The Daily Wire in an email. “We have the overwhelming advantage. We have got to start acting like it or it will keep getting worse.”
President Joe Biden’s weakness in responding to the attacks have emboldened the Houthis, who he removed from the Foreign Terrorist Organization list at the start of his presidency. U.S. forces have been attacked at least 127 times by Iranian backed terrorists in the region since October 17, just days after Hamas launched their unprecedented terrorist attack against Israel.
The Wall Street Journal reported that diplomats have told maritime executives that targets will likely include drone launch sites, radars, weapons depots, and other targets in various cities throughout Yemen.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak held a full cabinet emergency meeting on Thursday evening about the forthcoming strikes.
The Journal said that the Houthis got word of the forthcoming airstrikes and have “relocated some weapons and equipment and fortified others” in preparation.
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