Yemen Vows to Broaden Retaliation amid Costly, Ineffective US Airstrikes

CNN reported on Sunday that the United States has carried out a high-cost aerial campaign across Yemen since mid-March, targeting the country’s infrastructure.

The offensive marked a significant escalation of US military involvement, launched after Yemen’s government reinstated a ban on Israeli and Israeli-affiliated vessels passing through key waterways.

Yemen’s move was in response to Israel’s repeated violations of a ceasefire in Gaza and its blockade of essential humanitarian supplies to the Palestinian enclave.

CNN previously disclosed that the US military campaign had approached a cost of $1 billion in less than three weeks, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Despite the scale and expense of the airstrikes, the report stated they had achieved “limited impact” on degrading the capabilities of Yemen’s armed forces.

“We are burning through readiness — munitions, fuel, deployment time,” a US official was quoted as saying.

Instead of retreating, Yemeni forces have intensified their response, CNN noted.

Since mid-March, Yemen has launched multiple ballistic missiles at Israeli-occupied territories and repeatedly targeted US naval vessels in the Red Sea using drones and missiles.

While these strikes have caused limited physical damage, they demonstrate a firm resolve to counter US military pressure, the report said.

US officials told CNN that several mid-level Yemeni commanders were killed in the strikes, a claim rejected by authorities in Sana’a.

Intelligence analysts reportedly found that Yemen’s senior leadership and much of its military infrastructure, including missile systems, remained intact.

CNN added that Yemeni forces are now threatening to include additional targets in their retaliatory operations.

“The dozens of airstrikes on Yemen will not deter the Yemeni Armed Forces from fulfilling their religious, moral, and humanitarian duties,” a spokesperson for Yemen’s Ansarullah movement said.

According to the report, since October 2023, Yemen has conducted over 100 operations against Israeli and Israeli-linked targets in the Red Sea, including the sinking of two vessels.

Ansarullah said the number of operations is significantly higher.

The campaign has disrupted shipping routes, forcing vessels bound for Israel to reroute around southern Africa, increasing delivery times and costs.

CNN quoted US and regional analysts who said Washington’s military actions were unlikely to succeed.

Some experts criticized the campaign as symbolic rather than strategic.

“Air power alone is insufficient,” said Elisabeth Kendall, a specialist in Yemeni affairs.

“Yemen has been bombed tens of thousands of times over the past decade and remains undeterred,” she added.

Kendall suggested the campaign is largely performative: “Let’s show the world — we’ll do it because we can.”

Ahmed Nagi of the International Crisis Group said the belief that airstrikes will compel Yemen to relent is misguided.

“This approach failed under the Biden administration and is unlikely to succeed under the Trump administration,” he told CNN.

The report emphasized Yemen’s resilience in the face of military aggression from the US, Israel, the UK, and a Saudi-led coalition.

Yemen’s technological advances, including hydrogen fuel cells and turbojet engines in drones, have expanded the range and payload of its UAVs, CNN reported.

Michael Knights of the Washington Institute said Yemen’s tribal fighters are “extremely tough and ideologically committed.”

“They’re inured to being at war with a first world military,” he said.

Farea al-Muslimi of Chatham House argued that US strikes might be playing into Yemen’s strategy.

“They are praying for a war with the US,” he said, adding that such a conflict allows Yemen to widen the battlefield and potentially draw Washington into a broader regional confrontation.