The U.S. launched more strikes on Yemen’s Houthis overnight as the Iran-backed militant group continues to roil global shipping markets with attacks around the Red Sea.
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00:00 This morning, U.S. Central Command forces conducted strikes on two Houthi anti-ship
00:05 missiles that were aimed into the southern Red Sea.
00:09 Also last night, the U.S. Central Command conducted strikes on 14 Houthi missiles at
00:15 over a dozen locations.
00:17 These missiles on launch rails presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and U.S.
00:21 Navy ships in the region and could have been fired at any time.
00:25 We've taken these strikes because they are inherently defensive in nature.
00:30 The Central Command commander has the right, when he sees a threat posed to our forces
00:36 or commercial shipping, to take the action that he needs, which is why you saw the strikes
00:41 just yesterday and early this morning of what appeared to be missiles that were getting
00:46 ready or preparing to launch into the Red Sea.
00:50 We never said that the Houthis would immediately stop.
00:53 That is something that they will have to make that decision and that calculation to do.
00:59 It's in their best interest, I think, to stop.
01:01 You've seen that we've been able to degrade and severely disrupt and destroy a significant
01:07 number of their capabilities since Thursday.
01:10 What we've seen are lower scale retaliatory, like one or two missiles going into the Red
01:15 Sea.
01:16 Nothing like what we saw the previous Tuesday, where that was that largest barrage that we'd
01:21 seen from the Houthis.
01:22 No, we don't seek war.
01:25 We don't think that we are at war.
01:27 We don't want to see a regional war.
01:30 What we are doing with our partners is self-defense.
01:35 We certainly don't want to see this widen out to a regional war, and we don't want to
01:39 see this continue, which is why you have seen the action that we've taken.
01:43 The end goal is for these attacks to stop, for us to deter Houthi strikes, again, from
01:50 commercial shipping that has been transiting the Red Sea for many, many decades and should
01:56 be allowed to continue freely without harassment or without fear of bombardment from Houthi-controlled
02:04 areas in Yemen.
02:05 Our message has been very clear.
02:07 We don't seek a regional conflict.
02:09 We don't want to see a regional conflict, and we certainly don't want what's happening
02:12 in Gaza to spill out into a larger regional or wider scale war.
02:19 We know tensions are high in the region.
02:22 We certainly acknowledge that, but we also have called on Iran repeatedly to stop, and
02:28 that's what you're going to see us continuing to do, and we're meeting those words with
02:31 action.