INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
President Joe Biden&s blistering strikes on Yemen followed weeks of warnings to the Houthis to stop attacking Red Sea shipping & or else.Yet
the Houthis continued firing drones and missiles, seemingly goading the United States to follow through on its threats
That has raised a question for some experts: Did the Houthis want a war with America? And if so, why?Gerald Feierstein, a former U.S
ambassador to Yemen, is among those who think the United States has given the Houthis exactly what they wanted: a fight.&Absolutely they
have been trying to provoke U.S
retaliation,& Feierstein told Reuters.&They&ve been confident that they could withstand whatever we were going to do
They have seen they win popular support.&The Houthis, who have controlled most of Yemen for nearly a decade, said five fighters had been
killed in a total of 73 air strikes
They vowed to retaliate and continue their attacks on shipping, which they say are intended to support Palestinians against Israel, a
popular cause in Yemen.The U.S
military said late on Friday it had launched another strike targeting a radar site.After the initial U.S
and British strikes, drone footage on the Houthis& al-Masirah TV showed hundreds of thousands of people in Sanaa chanting slogans denouncing
Israel and the United States
Crowds gathered in other Yemeni cities as well.Experts say much of the Houthi confidence comes from having resisted years of attacks from
But a U.S.-led campaign against the group could be very different.U.S
Lieutenant General Douglas Sims, the director of the Joint Staff, told reporters on Thursday that the strikes hit 28 locations with more
Reviewing the damage, he said he hoped the Houthis would not invite that kind of destruction.&My guess is if you were operating a ballistic
missile launcher last night, you certainly didn&t want the strike
But, no, I would hope they didn&t want us to strike,& Sims said.MOUNTAIN FIGHTERSIn pre-recorded speeches and sermons, Abdul Malik
al-Houthi, the enigmatic leader of Yemen&s Houthi fighters, asserts that his movement is under siege because of its religion.Al-Houthi
established a reputation as a fierce battlefield commander before emerging as head of the Houthi movement, mountain fighters who have been
battling a Saudi-led military coalition since 2015 in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands, devastated Yemen&s economy and left
millions hungry.Under the direction of al-Houthi, who is in his 40s, the group has acquired tens of thousands of fighters and a huge arsenal
of armed drones and ballistic missiles, largely supplied by Iran.Following the strikes, Sims and other U.S
officials acknowledged that the Houthis would probably make good on their threats to retaliate.On Friday, the Houthis fired an anti-ship
ballistic missile into the Red Sea, the Pentagon said.A U.S
official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said far from being deterred, the Houthis might see the likely low death toll among their
fighters in the strikes as a success for the group, even if their capabilities have been degraded.&Someone&s definition of success really
depends on their perspective,& the official said.With tensions soaring, the price of Brent crude oil rose 1% on Friday on concern that
supplies could be disrupted
Commercial ship tracking data showed at least nine oil tankers stopping or diverting from the Red Sea.MORE STRIKES?Michael Mulroy, a former
deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East under the Trump administration, said the Pentagon should prepare for additional
should start planning to increase our response to further attacks in the Red Sea or Syria and Iraq,& he said.&And Iran&s IRGC should be
included in those targets,& he added, using an acronym for Iran&s Revolutionary Guard Corps.Iran champions the Houthis as part of its
regional &axis of resistance& & a collection of Iran-backed groups that includes Palestinian militant group Hamas and militia in Iraq and
Syria.The United States accuses Iran of enabling the Houthi Red Sea attacks, providing the military capabilities and intelligence to carry
them out.The Houthis deny being puppets of Tehran and say they are fighting a corrupt system and regional aggression.Still, Feierstein
cautions that the Houthi defiance of the United States and its allies helps burnish their brand in the Middle East, a concern shared by some
officials.&Regionally, it raises the Houthi profile
It puts them in the first rank of Iranian affiliates in the ‘Axis of Resistance,'& Feierstein said.&We shouldn&t give the Houthis what
they want, which is exactly what we did.&Analysis by Reuters staff Phil Stewart and Idrees AliThe post Did the US just get lured into war
with the Houthis? first appeared on Ariana News.
