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Associated Press

US long-range B-2 stealth bombers launched air strikes early Thursday morning targeting underground bunkers used by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, officials said.
It wasn’t immediately clear what damage was done in the strikes.
However, there are no previous reports of the B-2 Spirit being used in the strikes targeting the Houthis, who have been attacking ships for months in the Red Sea corridor over the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel reported air strikes around Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, which the group has held since 2014. They also reported strikes around the Houthi stronghold of Saada. They offered no immediate information on damage or casualties.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the B-2 bombers targeted “five hardened underground weapons storage locations in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen”.

U.S. Central Command Conducts Multiple Strikes on Underground Iran-Backed Houthi Weapons Facilities pic.twitter.com/6YjQRVFvSD
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) October 17, 2024

The strike also appeared to be an indirect warning to Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor, which has targeted Israel with ballistic missile attacks twice over the past year.
The B-2 would be used in any American attack on hardened Iranian nuclear facilities like Natanz or Fordo given it is the only aircraft in service that can drop the GBU-57, known as the “Massive Ordnance Penetrator”.
“This was a unique demonstration of the United States’ ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified,” Austin said.
Austin and the US military’s Central Command offered no immediate assessment on the damage done. However, Central Command said in a statement that initial assessments suggested no civilians had been killed.
The Red Sea has become a battlefield for shippers since the Houthis began their campaign targeting ships traveling through the waterway, which once saw $1 trillion of cargo pass through it yearly.
Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October 2023.

They have seized one vessel and sunk two in the campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels.
The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the United Kingdom to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
The Houthis also continue to launch missiles targeting Israel and have shot down a number of US military MQ-9 Reaper drones.
The rebels have threatened new attacks in response to Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon and its killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The description and locations named by the Houthis on Thursday correspond to known underground bases operated by the rebels, who have been locked into a stalemated war with a Saudi-led coalition since 2015 that’s decimated the Arab world’s poorest nation.
The Houthis have refurbished tunnels that once held Scud missiles for Yemen when it was ruled by strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh during his 33-year reign, according to an analysis in April by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Those sites include the al-Hafa and Jabal Attan military bases, the former Presidential House and the Yemen state television compound in Sanaa, analyst Fabian Hinz wrote.
The Houthis have built what appears to be their own large-scale tunnel network near Saada as well, Hinz added.
“The fact that the Houthis began constructing major new installations after the agreement of the ceasefire with the Saudi-led coalition suggests that the group is focused on entrenching themselves and bolstering their military capabilities,” he wrote. Iran similarly relies on a network of underground missile bases.
The nuclear-capable B-2, which first saw action in 1999 in the Kosovo War, is rarely used by the US military in combat as each aircraft is worth some us$1 billion. It has dropped bombs in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya as well.
The aircraft are based at Whiteman Air Base in Missouri and typically conduct long-range strikes from there, though some B-2s were in Australia in September.


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A US B-2 stealth bomber. File photo: AFP

A US B-2 bomber. File photo: USAF via AFP

British oil ship Cordelia Moon being struck by a Houthi drone vessel in the Red Sea. Photo: Houthis Media Centre via  EPA-EFE

A missile that Yemen’s Houthis said was launched at Israel on September 15. Photo: Houthi Military Media via Reuters

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An Israeli soldier next to the remains of an Emad ballistic missile. Photo: Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits a base that was hit by a Hezbollah drone. Photo: Koby Gideon/GPO/dpa

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Smoke rise from Israeli air strikes on Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon, on Wednesday. Photo: AP

Smoke rise from Israeli air strikes on Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburbs. Photo: AP

People take cover as an sirens sound for incoming fire, during a tour for the foreign media with the Israeli army in Metula town near the Lebanese border on October 15. Photo: TNS

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World

US defence secretary called the mission a ‘unique demonstration’ to adversaries that nothing is out of reach


US defence secretary called the mission a ‘unique demonstration’ to adversaries that nothing is out of reach.
