The U.S. conducted what it called self-defense strikes on five targets in the Houthi-controlled area of Yemen after the Houthis employed an unmanned submarine for the first time since attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden began, the Pentagon said. The submarine, an unmanned underwater vessel, or UUV, shows advancing Houthi capability and a shifting strategy, ABC News national security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy, a former Pentagon official and CIA agent, said. The Houthis, which the U.S. designates a global terrorist group with Iran's backing, operate out of parts of Yemen they control after a cease-fire in the Yemeni civil war.
Naval forces of the Ansar Allah movement, also known as the Houthis, have prevented the passage through the Gulf of Aden of all ships that have been heading to Israeli ports recently, the movement s leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said on Tuesday.
Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesThe United States and the U.K. have been trying to counter the Houthis’ unrelenting attacks in the Red Sea for weeks now, striking at their missiles, radars, ground control, and command and control.But that strategy seems to be backfiring. The Houthis have not stopped their attacks in the Red Sea, in part because the Biden administration’s approach to deterring the Houthis has been flawed from the start, according to a former member