[World] Biden says air strikes against Yemen’s Houthis will continue

US President Joe Biden has said that attacks on the Houthis will continue even as he acknowledged that the group have not stopped their Red Sea attacks.

The US carried out a fifth round of strikes on Yemen on Thursday after a US ship was struck by a Houthi drone.

White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters that US forces “took out a range of Houthi missiles” that were about to be fired towards the Red Sea.

He said the American attacks took place on Wednesday and again on Thursday.

On Wednesday, a Houthi drone hit a “US owned and operated bulk carrier ship” which later had to be rescued by India’s navy. It came as the US designated the Houthis as a terrorist organisation.

“Well, when you say working are they stopping the Houthis? No,” Mr Biden told reporters in Washington DC on Thursday before he left for a speech in North Carolina.

“Are they gonna continue? Yes.”

US Central Command – which oversees US operations in the Middle East – said in a statement that it had “conducted strikes on two Houthi anti-ship missiles that were aimed into the Southern Red Sea and were prepared to launch” on Thursday.

“US forces identified the missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen” around 15:40 local time (12:40GMT) “and determined they were an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region”.

“US forces subsequently struck and destroyed the missiles in self-defense.”

Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh later told reporters at a briefing: “We do not seek war.”

“We are not at war with the Houthis. Actions we are taking are defensive in nature.”

Also on Thursday, the leader of the Houthis delivered a fiery hour-long televised speech in which he called it a “great honour” to be “in direct confrontation” with Israel, the US and the UK.

“The aggression against our dear people is a violation, aggression, a direct encroachment of the sovereignty of Yemen and a direct assault on the Yemeni people”, said Abdul Malik al-Houthi.

British security firm Ambrey reported that a US-owned tanker ship was encircled by four unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on Thursday off the southeast coast of Yemen, Reuters reported.

The ship was “not impacted and continued its voyage,” Ambrey said in a statement.

The Houthis began attacking merchant vessels in November, saying they were responding to Israel’s military operation in Gaza. Since then, the group has launched dozens of attacks on commercial tankers passing through the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

In response, the US and UK launched a wave of air strikes against dozens of Houthi targets on 11 January. The strikes – supported by Australia, Bahrain, the Netherlands and Canada – began after Houthi forces ignored an ultimatum to cease attacks in the region.