Yemen’s group Houthis, want direct fight with Israel and USA. 3/15 USA launch strike in Yemen, Washington sent extra aircraft carrier to region
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Report: Saudi, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait ban US warplanes for strikes
Wednesday, 02 April 2025 10:56 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 02 April 2025 11:05 AM ]
Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states have imposed a ban on US warplanes using their air fields or skies for strikes which have seen a significant rise targeting Yemen in recent weeks, a report says.
The US has been moving warplanes and cargo to Jordan and Persian Gulf states at the highest level since the October 7, 2023 operationinside southern Israeli settlements by Hamas.
The number of US military cargo flights to the region has reportedly surged by 50 percent compared to previous highs. In response to the Persian Gulf states' ban, the US has amassed B-2 bombers used in recent bombings of Yemen at Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean.
Last week, the Ansarullah movement warned of attacks on Abu Dhabi and Dubai if the UAE's "reckless actions" through collaboration with the US in attacks on Yemen persisted.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait are especially worried by US President Donald Trump's belligerent rhetoric against Iran recently, threatening “bombing the likes of which they (Iranians) have never seen before”.
The Trump administration has been courting the Persian Gulf states to come on board as it ramps up a "maximum pressure" campaign against Tehran, but "they do not want to be drawn in", the Middle East Eye reported, citing what it called a senior US official.
Leader’s aide: If US strikes, Iran may have no choice but to go nuclear
An advisor to the Leader says if the US and Israel attack Iran, the country will be pushed to make an atomic bomb.
According to the London-based outlet, US military and intelligence officials met with both their Emirati and Saudi counterparts in March in Washington DC, around the time of the first strikes on Yemen.
In quick succession, the Trump administration approved long-stalled arms sales to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Doha received approval to purchase MQ-9 Reaper drones, and Riyadh secured weapon systems that convert unguided air to ground rockets to precision rockets, it said.
Trump said on Monday that he plans to visit Saudi Arabia and potentially other Persian Gulf states as early as May.
The US president is pursuing maximalist demands on Iran’s nuclear energy program, but the Persian Gulf states’ intransigence is a setback for his administration, the Middle East Eye said.
The US has at least 40,000 troops in West Asia, with the majority deployed in the oil-rich Persian Gulf states, where they are based at a string of strategic air and naval bases.
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base is home to the US’s 378th Air Expeditionary Wing, which operates F-16 and F-35 jet fighters. The US operates MQ-9 Reaper drones and jet fighters out of the UAE’s Al Dhafra Air Base. Kuwait’s Ali al-Salem Air Base is home to the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing.
Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base hosts the regional headquarters for US Central Command. It has also reportedly hosted some Israeli military officials.
The island kingdom of Bahrain is home to around 9,000 US troops that belong to the headquarters of the US Naval Forces Central Command and the US Fifth Fleet.
Yemen’s military has over the past year targeted various American, British and Israeli vessels crossing the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea in solidarity with Gazans.
The US military has recently been targeting several areas in Yemen, hoping to use massive airstrikes on Yemen’s civilian infrastructure as a show of force to push Tehran to the negotiating table.
Cost of US military offensive against Houthis nears $1 billion with limited impact
By Natasha Bertrand, CNN
CNN —
The total cost of the US military’s operationagainst the Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen is nearing $1 billion in just under three weeks, even as the attacks have had limited impact on destroying the terror group’s capabilities, three people briefed on the campaign’s progress told CNN.
The military offensive, which was launched on March 15, has already used hundreds of millions of dollars worth of munitions for strikes against the group, including JASSM long-range cruise missiles, JSOWs, which are GPS-guided glide bombs, and Tomahawk missiles, the sources said.
B-2 bombers out of Diego Garcia are also being used against the Houthis, and an additional aircraft carrier as well as several fighter squadrons and air defense systems will soon be moved into the Central Command region, defense officials said this week.
One of the sources said the Pentagon will likely need to request supplemental funding from Congress to continue the operation, but may not receive it — the offensive has already been criticized on both sides of the aisle, and even Vice President JD Vance said he thought the operation was “a mistake” in a Signal chatpublished by The Atlantic last week.
The Pentagon has not publicly disclosed what impact the daily US military strikes have actually had on the Houthis. Officials from the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, US Central Command, US Indo Pacific Command, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, and the State Department told Congress in recent days that the strikes have eliminated several members of Houthi leadership and destroyed some Houthi military sites.
But they acknowledged that the group has still been able to fortify their bunkers and maintain weapons stockpiles underground, much as they did during the strikes that the Biden administration carried out for over a year, the sources said. And it has been difficult to determine precisely how much the Houthis still have stockpiled, a defense official said.
“They’ve taken out some sites, but that hasn’t affected the Houthis’ ability to continue shooting at ships in the Red Sea or shooting down US drones,” said one of the sources briefed on the operation. “Meanwhile, we are burning through readiness—munitions, fuel, deployment time.”
The New York Times first reported details of the military operation shared in briefings with Congress.
The operational tempo of the strikes is also higher now that CENTCOM Commander Erik Kurilla no longer needs higher-level approval to conduct strikes—a shift from the Biden administration and a return to the policies of Trump’s first term, when military commanders were given more freedom to carry out missions in order to achieve “a strategic effect” as opposed to needing case-by-case approval from the White House for each strike and raid.
It’s still not clear, though, how long the Trump administration plans to continue the offensive, which CENTCOM has described as a “24/7” operation. Trump has said it will last until the Houthis stop attacking Red Sea shipping, but despite weeks of bombing the Houthis have continued launching missiles and drones at targets in and over the Red Sea. Earlier this week, they shot down another US MQ-9 Reaper drone—the second MQ9 shot down since the offensive began last month, multiple sources told CNN.
Another defense official noted, however, that ballistic missile attacks from the Houthis against Israel have decreased in the last week, and said the relentless US bombing campaign has made it more difficult for the Houthis to communicate and hit things accurately because they’ve been forced to “keep their heads down.”
The people briefed on the operation also all described the Houthi officials who have been killed in the US strikes as mid-level, akin to “middle management.” One exception is the Houthi official in charge of the group’s drone operations, who was killed in a strike last month, officials said.
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz referenced that Houthi leader in the Signal chat in March that was disclosed by The Atlantic. Waltz said in that chat that the Houthis’ “top missile guy” was killed when he walked into his girlfriend’s building in Yemen which “collapsed” amid US strikes.
Two of the sources briefed on the ongoing operation said that comment is indicative of how the US military under Trump is taking a more “expansive” approach to the strikes than the Biden administration did, in terms of being less concerned about collateral damage. The Houthis have long used more populated areas to conceal command and control sites, the sources said.
But one of the defense officials said the building was not a civilian apartment building, but rather a meeting place for Houthi officials, and that the US military is using precision munitions and taking other measures to mitigate the risk of civilian casualties.
The large-scale operation has also rattled some officials at US Indo-Pacific Command, who have complained in recent days and weeks about the large number of long-range weapons being expended by CENTCOM against the Houthis, particularly the JASSMs and Tomahawks, the sources said. Those weapons would be critical in the event of a war with China, and military planners at INDOPACOM are concerned that the CENTCOM operation could have a negative impact on US military readiness in the Pacific.
One of the defense officials also downplayed that concern, calling it “an exaggeration.”
“We employ precision munitions in every strike. We retain authority to use the full capacity of our deployed forces in the Middle East region against the Houthis,” the official said. “We have no concern about employment of long-range weapons when and if needed to maximize our effectiveness