JERUSALEM—Following a weekend of counteroffensives, the US on Sunday cautioned Iran and the militias it supplies and supports that it will carry out further strikes should US soldiers in the Middle East remain under assault, but that it does not desire a "open-ended military campaign" throughout the area.
“We are prepared to deal with anything that any group or any country tries to come at us with,” said Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser. Sullivan said Iran should expect “a swift and forceful response” if it—and not one of its proxies—“chose to respond directly” against the U.S.
Following the strikes on 36 Houthi sites in Yemen on Saturday by the United States and Britain, Sullivan issued the warnings in a series of appearances with television news programs. After the Israel-Hamas war, the terrorists with Iran's support have opened fire on American and foreign targets several times.
In response for the drone strike that killed three U.S. Marines in Jordan last weekend, there was an airstrike on Friday against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and other militias with Iranian support in both Iraq and Syria. On Sunday, the US opened fire on Houthi targets once more.
“We cannot rule out that there will be future attacks from Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria or from the Houthis,” Sullivan said. He said the president has told his commanders that “they need to be positioned to respond to further attacks as well.”
The United States has designated the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a confederation of militias backed by Iran, as the cause of the Jan. 28 attack at the Tower 22 facility in Jordan. Iran has made an effort to disassociate itself from the drone strike by claiming that the militias operate without interference.
When questioned about the possibility of attacks within Iran that would intensify the battle in the unstable region, Sullivan responded that Biden "is not looking for a wider war." But he responded, "If they chose to respond directly to the United States, they would be met with a swift and forceful response from us," when questioned about the likelihood of an Iranian direct escalation.
While pledging to respond in a “sustained way” to new assaults on Americans, Sullivan said he “would not describe it as some open-ended military campaign.”
Still, he said, “We intend to take additional strikes and additional action to continue to send a clear message that the United States will respond when our forces are attacked or our people are killed.”
He stated that additional actions will be taken. "We'll see some of those phases. Some might not be seen.
Over 85 targets were struck at seven different locations by the American strike on many facilities in Syria and Iraq. These included intelligence gathering places, command and control centers, missile and rocket launchers, drone bases, ammunition storage facilities, and other establishments associated with the militias or the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the expeditionary division that manages Tehran's relations with and provision of weapons to local militias.
Thus far, it seems that the Biden administration will not go as far as to openly criticize Iran or prominent figures within the Quds Force.
According to Sullivan, the U.S. military currently lacks confirmation of any civilian deaths resulting from the attacks. We do know, however, that the targets we targeted were perfectly legitimate in terms of holding the weapons and the people fighting American soldiers. We thus have faith in the targets we hit.
Some of the militias have always posed a threat to American military installations, but they stepped increased their attacks when Israel declared war on Hamas in response to an attack on the country on October 7 that left 1,200 people dead and 250 more hostages. Israel's onslaught against Hamas in Gaza has claimed the lives of over 27,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry of the region.
In spite of a new international force to defend vessels in the crucial waterway, the Houthis have attacked military and commercial ships traveling through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden with missiles or drone strikes almost every day. They have also made it plain that they have no intention of halting their campaign.
The capital city of Sanaa was among the six districts in Yemen that the Houthi rebels controlled when American attacks occurred late on Sunday. The United States reported targeting subterranean missile depots, rebel-operated helicopters, and launch locations; the Houthis did not provide an estimate of the damage.
“These attacks will not discourage Yemeni forces and the nation from maintaining their support for Palestinians in the face of the Zionist occupation and crimes,” Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said. “The aggressors’ airstrikes will not go unanswered.”
Iran, meanwhile, issued a warning to the United States about the possibility of attacking two cargo ships in the Middle East that have long been thought to be Iranian commandos' forwarding headquarters. Iran's comments on the Behshad and Saviz ships seemed to indicate Tehran's mounting concern over US strikes around the area.
The ships are registered with a U.S. firm located in Tehran as commercial cargo ships. Treasury has designated Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines as a front company for the state-run company. Long-term residents of the Red Sea off Yemen, the Saviz and then the Behshad, are said to have been acting as spies for Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
The Behshad is helping an Iranian mission to "counteract piracy in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden," according to the narrator of the video statement released by Iran's regular army. However, Iran is not known to have participated in any of the recent campaigns against rising Somali piracy in the region following the Houthi attacks. The narrator refers to the vessels as "floating armories."
The Behshad headed south into the Gulf of Aden shortly before the start of the new American bombardment campaign. It is now parked in East Africa's Djibouti, next to a Chinese military installation there.
A warning is issued at the conclusion of the message, followed by a montage of images showing American flags and battleships.
“Those engaging in terrorist activities against Behshad or similar vessels jeopardize international maritime routes, security and assume global responsibility for potential future international risks,” the video said.
The 5th Fleet of the US Navy, situated in the Middle East, refuses to comment on the threat.
Currently, the Saviz is in the Indian Ocean close to the area where the United States claims recent drone assaults by Iran have targeted ships.
