The United States military has bombed a series of targets in areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthi group, the US defence chief has said.
US Air Force B-2 stealth bombers conducted “precision strikes” against five underground weapons storage locations, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday.
The strikes hit “hardened” underground facilities used to store weapons components of the kind used by the Houthis to target civilian and military vessels in the region, Austin said.
“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,” Austin added.
“The employment of US Air Force B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers demonstrate US global strike capabilities to take action against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere.”
The Houthis promised to retaliate, a statement on Thursday from its political bureau saying “we confirm that the American aggression will not pass without a response”.
The Houthis’ Al Masirah TV satellite news channel reported air strikes around Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, which the group has held since 2014, and around its stronghold of Saada. It provided no immediate information on damage or casualties.
Since November, the Iran-aligned Houthis have carried out numerous attacks on Israel-linked ships in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in what they describe as a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s war on Gaza that has killed more than 42,000 people.
But the group has also attacked commercial vessels with no obvious connection to the war.
As the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalates, the Houthis are demanding that Israel halt its assault on Lebanon.
Last month the Houthis claimed to have attacked the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Ashkelon as well as three US navy warships with missiles and drones.
Since Iran’s October 1 missile attack on Israel in response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, there has been mounting speculation about how Israel will retaliate.
Austin also said Houthi attacks continued to disrupt international trade, and he had ordered the strikes to “degrade the Houthis’ capability to continue their destabilising behaviour and to protect and defend US forces and personnel in one of the world’s most critical waterways”.
US Central Command said in a separate statement that its damage assessment did not indicate civilian casualties.
There are no previous reports of the B-2 Spirit being used in strikes against the Houthis.
The nuclear-capable B-2 was first used in 1999 in the Kosovo war, and has been deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya since. It is rarely used by the US military in combat as each aircraft is worth some $1bn.
The B-2s flew to their targets from Whiteman Air Force Base in the US state of Missouri, according to a report from Bloomberg. This marked the first time since January 2017 that the wing-shaped stealth bomber has flown a combat mission.
Each B-2 is capable of carrying up to 20 tonnes of bombs, including 80 500-pound (227-kg) GPS-guided munitions, the report added.
The latest bombing raids come a day after the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, warned that the country was at risk of being dragged further into the military escalation in the Middle East.
While Yemenis “yearn” for peace, hopes for an end to escalating violence in the region “seem distant”, Grundberg told the UN Security Council.
“Now, like many in the Middle East, their hopes for a brighter future are falling under the shadow of potentially catastrophic regional conflagration,” he said.
