Biden admin anticipating retaliation after US-UK joint strike on Houthi targets in Yemen

A senior defense official said the Biden administration is anticipating retaliation after the U.S. and U.K. carried out joint airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the militant group’s ongoing attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

The official said late Thursday, following the strikes, that the administration has so far "not seen any direct retaliatory action directed towards our U.S. or other coalition members."

"While we fully expect [the joint] airstrikes to diminish the Houthis’ capability and degrade it, and certainly over time to reduce their capacity and propensity to conduct these attacks, we would not be surprised to see some sort of response," the senior administration official said.

He said President Biden directed Secretary Austin to carry out the response on Tuesday, following one of the Houthi’s most complex attacks to date targeting international shipping lanes in the Red Sea.

On that day, Iranian-backed Houthi militants launched one-way attack UAVs, anti-ship cruise missiles, and an anti-ship ballistic missile from the Houthi-controlled area of Yemen towards international shipping lanes in the Southern Red Sea.

The attack took place as dozens of merchant vessels were transiting and was one of the largest drone and missile attacks from the terrorist group since they began attacking commercial shipping in November.

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The senior Biden administration official said Friday’s joint strikes was "aimed specifically to disrupt and degrade Houthis' capabilities to threaten global trade and freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical waterways."

The targets selected, he said, "focused specifically on Houthi missile