Biden Administration To Ramp Up Military Efforts Against Houthis

The Biden administration is reportedly planning on ramping up its military efforts against Houthi terrorists in Yemen amid a series of attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea.

After launching multiple rounds of airstrikes against the Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists that failed to deter the group, the U.S. military will now expand its fight against the Houthis, with the federal government recently redesignating them as a terrorist group.

The Houthis have pledged to continue attacking ships in and around the Red Sea as a show of strength against Israel following the Holy Land’s decision to retaliate against Hamas, a terrorist organization that invaded the Jewish State on Oct. 7, 2023.

Since Hamas attacked the Holy Land, the Houthis have launched a series of attacks against merchant ships in the Red Sea, including hijacking a cargo ship linked to Israel. As a result, several carrier vessels have been forced to find alternate routes to reach their destinations.

The Washington Post reported that the Biden administration’s strategy was to “erode the Houthis’ high-level military capability enough to curtail their ability to target shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden or, at a minimum, to provide a sufficient deterrent so that risk-averse shipping companies will resume sending vessels through the region’s waterways.”

Speaking to The Washington Post, U.S. officials said that although they don’t foresee the U.S.’s military campaign against the Houthis being lengthy, they are unsure as to how long it will take to prevent the terrorists from firing anti-ship ballistic missiles at ships in the Red Sea.

“We’re not trying to defeat the Houthis. There’s no appetite for invading Yemen,” a U.S. official told the newspaper. “The appetite is to degrade their ability to launch these kinds of attacks going forward, and that involves hitting the infrastructure that enables these kinds of attacks, and targeting their higher-level capabilities.”

U.S. officials noted that airstrikes fired by the U.S. and the British military “significantly degrad[ed]” the Houthis’ military capabilities, but there remains some artillery that needs to be destroyed.

“It’s impossible to forecast exactly what’s going to happen, and certainly not [to predict] future operations,” an official told The Washington Post.

“But the principle that it simply can’t be tolerated for a terrorist organization … with these advanced capabilities to essentially shut down or control shipping through a key international choke point is one that we feel very strongly about,” the official added.