US and UK to continue ‘disrupting and degrading’ Houthi military capabilities

Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Joe Biden has spoken to Rishi Sunak about the Red Sea crisis emphasising the need to continue “disrupting and degrading” Houthi military capabilities, even as the US military denied claims that the Yemeni rebels had successfully targeted a US military support ship.

White House spokesman John Kirby said the US president had discussed the situation with the British prime minister on Monday, following continued Houthi attacks on shipping transiting the Red Sea and nearby Gulf of Aden over the past week.

“They talked about what’s going on in the Red Sea and the need for a continued international multilateral approach to disrupting and degrading Houthi capabilities,” Kirby told reporters in Washington, in an apparent reference to military action.

The UK said Sunak and Biden had spoken in the evening UK time, where they also discussed the war in Gaza and funding for Ukraine. According to the British account, “the leaders condemned the surge in violent Houthi attacks”, and said they would continue to combat by putting diplomatic pressure on Iran to cease their support of the Yemeni group and “as needed, targeted military action to degrade Houthi capabilities”.

Britain joined with the US in bombing dozens of Houthi targets in Yemen 10 days ago, in an effort to halt a series of attacks by the rebel group, dating back to mid October, on shipping passing through the Red Sea region. More limited US bombing has followed in the days since.

But the US-led attacks have failed to eliminate the Houthi threat, and three attacks on merchant shipping were reported over three days last week, as the Houthis have signalled their determination to resist. The rebel group says it is targeting Israel and its western allies in support of Palestinians in Gaza in its targeting of the waterway.

Earlier, the Houthi movement said on Monday its forces had launched a missile attack on American military cargo ship Ocean Jazz in the Gulf of Aden, without offering any further details.

“The Yemeni armed forces continue to retaliate to any American or British aggression against our country by targeting all sources of threat in the Red and Arab Sea,” Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement.

But the US military denied the Houthi claims. The US fifth fleet, stationed in the Middle East, said reports that Ocean Jazz had been successfully attacked were “patently false”.

Naval operational headquarters had “maintained constant communications” with Ocean Jazz “throughout its safe transit”, the fleet added in a statement released via X.

On Sunday two US Navy Seals who went missing during an operation to seize Iranian weapons bound for Yemen’s Houthi rebels were declared dead after a 10-day search failed to locate them.

The missing service members had participated in an operation on 11 January, in which US forces boarded a dhow off the coast of Somalia and seized missile components made in Iran, according to the Pentagon.