Comments after the United States carried out its fifth round of strikes against targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
US President Joe Biden has pledged to continue attacks against Yemen's Houthis, even as he admitted that military action against the rebel group has failed to stop attacks on commercial shipping.
Biden made his comments Thursday after the United States carried out its fifth round of strikes against targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement that it had destroyed two anti-ship missiles after determining that they were an “imminent threat to US merchant vessels and Navy vessels in the region.”
When asked by reporters if attacks on the rebel group were working, Biden acknowledged that they had not stopped attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea.
“Well, when you say work, are they stopping the Houthis? No,” Biden said. “Are they going to continue? Yeah.”
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in a later briefing that the Houthis would have to make the decision to stop the attacks.
“We never said the Houthis would stop immediately,” Singh said, adding that it was “in the best interest” of the group to stop the attacks.
“You have seen that we have been able to seriously degrade, disrupt and destroy a significant number of their capabilities since Thursday. But it's really up to them when they decide they want to stop disrupting commercial shipping, innocent sailors transiting the Red Sea.”
Singh also said that the United States does not consider itself at war with the Houthis and that its actions are in self-defense.
“We do not believe we are at war. We don't want to see a regional war,” Singh said. “The Houthis are the ones who continue to launch cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles at innocent sailors, at commercial vessels that are just transiting through an area that represents, you know, 10 to 15 percent of global trade.”
The Houthis, in a statement issued later on Thursday, said they had carried out a missile attack on the US ship Chem Ranger in the Gulf of Aden, resulting in “direct hits”.
CENTCOM said the rebel group had launched two missiles at the U.S.-owned tanker, but they missed their target.
The Iran-backed Houthis have carried out repeated attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea, a major conduit for global trade, in a show of support for Palestinians under Israeli bombing in Gaza.
More than two dozen vessels have been attacked by the group since they seized the Israel-linked ship Galaxy Leader in November.
The attacks have forced some of the world's largest shipping operators to reroute their vessels towards the southern tip of Africa, severely disrupting global trade.
The United States and its partners last month launched a multinational force, Operation Prosperity Guardian, to protect commercial vessels from drone and missile attacks in the waterway.
