U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin makes a joint statement with Israel Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, after their meeting about Israel’s military operation in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. (AP photo/ Maya Alleruzzo)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin makes a joint statement with Israel Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, after their meeting about Israel’s military operation in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. (AP photo/ Maya Alleruzzo)
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said it’s time to further disable Iran-backed militias that have struck at US forces and ships in the Middle East and the US is preparing to take significant action in response to the deaths of three US service members in Jordan.
For days the US has hinted strikes are imminent. While the threat of retaliation for Sunday’s deaths has driven some militant groups to say they were stopping hostilities, as late as yesterday Yemen’s Houthi rebels were still attacking vessels and fired a ballistic missile at a Liberian-flagged container ship in the Red Sea.
“At this point, it’s time to take away even more capability than we’ve taken in the past,” Austin said Thursday in his first press conference since he was hospitalised on January 1 due to complications from prostate cancer treatment.
Previous US strikes have not deterred the attacks. Since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October, Iranian-backed militant groups have struck US bases in Iraq and Syria at least 166 times with rockets, missiles and one-way attack drones, drawing about a half-dozen US counterstrikes on militant facilities in both countries. The US military also has carried out airstrikes targeting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The US has attributed the attack on Tower 22 in Jordan to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes the militant group Kataib Hezbollah.
While Iran has denied involvement, Austin said that “how much Iran knew or didn’t know, we don’t know. But it really doesn’t matter because Iran sponsors these groups”.
Austin said, “without that facilitation, these kinds of things don’t happen”. He said the Pentagon is still looking at the forensics of the drone that struck Tower 22, a secretive base in northeastern Jordan that’s been crucial to the American presence in neighbouring Syria.
“I don’t think the adversaries are of a ‘one and done’ mindset. And so they have a lot of capability. I have a lot more,” Austin said. “We’re going to do what’s necessary to protect our troops.”
In the Red Sea, the Houthis have fired on commercial and military ships almost 40 times since November. In the latest attack, they fired a ballistic missile at a Liberian-flagged container ship, US defence officials said.
The attack happened west of Hodeida, a port city in Yemen long held by the rebels, said the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a British military group overseeing Mideast waterways. It said the crew and the vessel were safe and the blast came far off the vessel’s starboard side.
The US defence officials identified the targeted container ship as the Koi, a Bermuda-owned vessel. Its management could not be immediately reached for comment. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. The Houthis did not claim responsibility for the assault.
The Houthis say they are targeting ships over Israel’s offensive in Gaza against Hamas. But they have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperilling shipping in a key route for global trade between Asia, the Mideast and Europe.
The Houthis hit a commercial vessel with a missile, sparking a fire that burned for hours.
US-owned ship Genco Picardy came under attack from a bomb-carrying drone launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Gulf of Aden. Photo / AP
The Pentagon has the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower in the region, along with at least a half dozen other major US warships, US Air Force fighter jets and radar aircraft. It has already been regularly using those assets to conduct strikes and defend ships.
Late Wednesday, American F/A-18 fighter jets struck and destroyed 10 Houthi drones that were prepared to launch, as well as a ground control station used by the rebels, the US military said. The US also intercepted a ballistic missile and other drones already in the air during the day.
