Maj Gen P K Mallick, VSM (Retd)
The strikes were from fighter jets and Tomahawk missiles. More than a dozen Houthi targets were attacked by missiles fired from air, surface and sub-surface platforms which were chosen for their ability to degrade the Houthis’ war-waging capabilities.
In the wee hours of the morning of 12 January 2024, the United States in partnership with the United Kingdom launched a series of cruise missiles and airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen. The strikes were from fighter jets and Tomahawk missiles. More than a dozen Houthi targets were attacked by missiles fired from air, surface and sub-surface platforms which were chosen for their ability to degrade the Houthis’ war-waging capabilities. This map shows the Cyprus base and the location of the strikes:
Weapon platforms used. The bulk of the firepower came from US fighter jets. The US has an aircraft carrier in the Red Sea and air bases in the region. The US deployed 22 fixed-wing aircraft including F18s from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The USS Philippine Sea guided missile cruiser and two Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, the USS Gravely and the USS Mason took part in the operation. The USS Florida, a guided missile submarine that crossed into the Red Sea on November 23, was part of the attack. The strikes, in two waves, aimed at targets in 28 different locations across Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
Munitions. The strikes involved more than 150 precision-guided munitions “of various types” including air-launched missiles by F/A-18 Super Hornets based on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles, which are GPS-guided and can be programmed to fly evasively were fired from the Navy destroyers USS Gravely and USS Mason, the Navy cruiser USS Philippine Sea and a U.S. submarine. Precision-guided munitions were used to destroy the targets and also to minimize collateral damage.
Target. Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, strikes were largely in low-populated areas, and the number of those killed would not be high. He said the strikes hit weapons, radar and targeting sites, including in remote mountain areas. Precision weapons hit 60 targets in 16 locations. The targets were not ‘symbolic.’ They were carefully chosen to make it very difficult for the Houthis to continue with their anti-shipping campaign. Attacks were carried out against the sensors that enabled the Houthis to identify and track targets, missiles and drones and factories that produce them and storage.
Strikes were reported in the Yemen capital Sanaa, which is controlled by the rebels, the Houthi Red Sea port of Hodeidah, Dhamar and the group’s north-western stronghold of Saada. A senior US military official said that he could not provide an exact percentage of Houthi assets that were destroyed in the strikes but that it was “significant.”
According to Al-Masirah, a Houthi-run news channel, Hodeida International Airport, Taiz International Airport, al-Dailami Air Base (which shares the runway with Sanaa International Airport), an airport near Hajjah, and a camp east of Saada were hit. As per the Houthis’ military spokesman, there were a total of 72 strikes. The Houthis’ deputy information minister, Nasr al-Din Amir, reported no material losses or casualties from the latest strikes and said the targeted site was already defunct.
UK’s involvement. When it comes to US military strikes, the UK is used to being a loyal, junior helper.
The aircrafts, four RAF Typhoon FGR4s supported by a Voyager air refuelling tanker, flew from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus at roughly 7.30 pm UK time on 12 January 2024 and dropped their payload on the Yemeni sites at about 11.30 pm. They had returned to Cyprus by 3 am.
They used Paveway IV guided bombs to conduct precision strikes on two Houthi facilities, a site in Bani in north-western Yemen used by the Houthis to launch reconnaissance and attack drones and an airfield in Abbs used to launch cruise missiles and drones. Several buildings supposedly involved in drone operations were targeted by the aircraft.
James Heappey, UK junior armed forces minister, told the BBC that at least 14 targets were successfully hit.
Though the Royal Navy has two warships in the Red Sea, neither can fire land attack missiles. They were not directly involved in the strikes.
The flight path of RAF aircrafts is likely to be overflying Israel or Jordan or Saudi Arabia or Egypt. Were they informed and permission taken?
According to The Independent, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak phoned Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Thursday evening to request clearance for the Typhoons to fly over the eastern Mediterranean. The crew then flew west of Israel before descending the Red Sea and carrying out strikes on the Houthi positions in western Yemen.
The spokesperson for the Cyprus Foreign Ministry, Theodoros Gotsis, emphasised that the Cypriot government maintains ongoing communication with the UK, adhering to the Treaty of Establishment guidelines on the use of British military bases. Gotsis urged for an immediate halt to activities endangering free and secure navigation, citing Cyprus’s substantial maritime presence in the area. Expressing concern, the Cyprus Peace Council asserted that British involvement in Yemen’s airstrikes was transforming Cyprus into a military base. In response, they announced intentions to stage a demonstration outside the RAF Akrotiri base.
Sequence of Events of the Strike.
On 12 January 2024, the first wave of strikes commenced around 2:30 a.m. Yemen time. American fighter jets, armed with precision-guided bombs, were dispatched from regional bases. Simultaneously, 22 fixed-wing aircraft, including F/A-18s, took off from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. In addition, the cruiser USS Philippine Sea, the destroyers USS Gravely, and USS Mason, along with the cruise-missile submarine USS Florida, launched Tomahawk cruise missiles.
During this first wave of strikes, over 60 targets in 16 separate locations were hit by more than 100 missiles. Approximately 30 to 60 minutes later, a second wave struck dozens more targets in 12 additional locations using over 50 missiles.
Next day at 3:45 a.m. Yemen time the US unilaterally performed an additional strike on a radar site near Sanaa, which Al-Masirah reported was at Al-Dailami Air Base. This site had survived a first attempt to take it out on 12 January. The US Central Command said the “follow-on action” was conducted by the destroyer USS Carney using Tomahawk land attack missiles. Later in the day, another attack was reported in Hodeida targeting a rocket launch site on the city’s outskirts.
Immediate Houthis Reaction.
The retaliatory action by the Houthis did not take much time.
Attack on US Naval ship. The Houthis targeted a US naval destroyer with an anti-ship cruise missile. The US Central Command wrote on X: “On Jan. 14 at approximately 4:45 p.m. (Sanaa time), an anti-ship cruise missile was fired from Iranian-backed Houthi militant areas of Yemen toward USS Laboon (DDG 58), which was operating in the Southern Red Sea. The missile was shot down by U.S. fighter aircraft in the vicinity of the coast of Hudaydah, a port city in the west of Yemen whose international airport was targeted in joint US-UK airstrikes. There were no injuries or damage reported. The Yemeni rebel group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Houthis military spokesperson Yahya Saree said, “All American and British ships and warships involved in the aggression against our country are considered hostile targets. No future US or British attack on Yemen would go unpunished.”
Houthis hit a US-owned ship. A day after the Houthis tried to hit a US Navy ship in the Red Sea, on 15 January they fired a missile fired which hit the Gibraltar Eagle, a bulk carrier owned by a U.S. company and flagged to the Marshall Islands, that had been sailing in the Gulf of Aden, south of Yemen.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said that a vessel was hit from above by a missile 95 nautical miles southeast of Aden,
British Maritime Security firm Ambrey said three missiles were reportedly launched by the Houthis, with two not reaching the sea and the third striking the bulk carrier. It said that the impact reportedly caused a fire in a hold, but that the bulker remained seaworthy with no injuries on board.
In another development, UKMTO reported the following:
US officials believe that the Houthis retained about three-quarters of their capacity to fire missiles and launch drones after the strikes of 12 January. Omar Rahman, a fellow with the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, said one-off strikes targeting Houthi installations would not reduce the group’s capability or deter them from attacking ships in the Red Sea. He told Al Jazeera, “What the US and UK are doing is not strategically justifiable. It’s only justifiable if you look at what the Houthis are doing in the Red Sea in isolation from what’s happening in Gaza and in the rest of the region. The US and UK are ignoring the source of the crisis, which is the genocide in Gaza, but they’re also enabling it. They’re trying to prevent a wider regional escalation by taking military action against the flashpoints that are occurring as a result of what’s happening in Gaza.”
The Red Sea is going to be hotter. Things are likely to change very fast. It needs close observation. “Picture abhi baki hain”, lot remains to be seen.
The author is an Indian Army Veteran
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