President Trump said this week that Houthi fighters supported by Iran in Yemen “were decimated by relentless strikes” he ordered to begin on March 15.
But this is not what the Pentagon and military officials privately say Congress and allied countries privately.
In closed updates in recent days, Pentagon officials acknowledged that there was limited success in the destruction of the huge, largely underground rocket arsenal, aircraft and launchers, according to Congress and allies.
Officials informed of confidential damage estimates say that the bombing is more heavier than the strikes carried out by the Biden administration and much larger than the defense department publicly described.
But Houthi’s fighters, known for their durability, have enhanced many of their tanks and other targeted spaces, frustrating the ability of Americans to disrupt the militia’s missile attacks on the Red Sea, according to three officials. Business issues.
In just three weeks, the Pentagon used $ 200 million worth ammunition, in addition to the huge operating and personal costs for the development of two air carriers, additional bombers and fighter aircraft, as well as Patriot and Thaad Air Defents in the Middle East.
The total cost could exceed more than $ 1 billion next week and the Pentagon may soon need to seek additional funds from Congress, a US official said.
It is used so many precision ammunition, specially advanced long -term, that some of the Pentagon’s emergency are concerned about the overall sailor’s reserves and the consequences of any situation in which the United States should prevent an attempt to invade Taiwan.
US strikes, which Defense Minister Pete Hegseth named Operation Rough Rider after driving the Theodore Roosevelt troops in Cuba during the Spanish-American war, could probably continue for six months, officials said.
A senior Pentagon official late on Thursday returned to the ratings described by Congress and Allies officials.
The senior official, also speaking about the condition of anonymity to discuss business issues, said that the air raids had overcome their target in the initial phase of the campaign, disrupting the capacity of Houthi’s senior leaders to communicate, restricting the team. phases, which he refuses to discuss. “We’re on the right track,” the official said.
US officials said the strikes had destroyed Houthis’s command and control structure. Tulsi Gabbard, director of National Intelligence, said in a statement that the strikes were “effective” in the murder of top Houthi leaders, who did not recognize and said the operation had reopened the Red Sea.
“Community information evaluations confirm that these strikes killed top Houthi leaders and destroyed several facilities that Houthis can use to produce advanced conventional weapons,” Ms Gabbard said.
The strikes are at the center of a collapse involving Mr Hegseth and other senior members of the Trump administration, where these officials discussed sensitive details on the initial bombardment raids in Yemen on March 15th in a group conversation in a commercial application. Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, created the team, but accidentally added a journalist to it.
Trump administration officials report that air and naval strikes are aiming for Houthis’ pressure to stop attacks that have disrupted international shipping strips in the Red Sea for more than a year.
The Biden administration has strikes up Houtis, but on a smaller scale and mainly against infrastructure and military spaces. Trump administration officials report that current strikes are also aimed at killing Houthi’s senior officials.
“Everyone has to recognize that we make the world a great favor after these guys, because this cannot be continued,” Foreign Minister Marco Rubio told reporters last week.
Trump’s administration has not said why she believes that her campaign against the team will succeed after Biden’s annual efforts, primarily failed to prevent Houthi’s attacks, which have also targeted Israel.
“The administration must also explain to the Congress and the American people its expected path forward, given the failure of previous efforts,” Senate Jeff Merkley, Oregon’s Democratic, and Rand Paul, a Republican of Kentak in a letter to Kedaki, writes.
The Pentagon did not give details on the attacks on March 17, when it said that more than 30 Houthi targets had been hit on the first day.
A spokesman for the Army Central Administration said on March 24 that the strikes “destroyed orders and controlled facilities, air defense systems, arms production facilities and advanced arms storage sites”.
A senior official at the Ministry of Defense said Thursday in response to questions from the New York Times: “We have already begun to see the impact of heavy strikes on Houtis.
Houthis, the senior official, said: “They are becoming increasingly reactionary as US air strikes are downgrading their ability and ability.”
The senior official, who spoke about the condition of anonymity to discuss business issues, denied that Pentagon Sickers had told Congress and allied officials that the strikes could last six months, saying that the period was “never discussed”.
The Central Administration publishes images in the social media of the Jets that carry out missions against Houthis, but has repeatedly refused to disclose how many goals have hitherto hit or to identify the various Houthi commanders, including a leading expert.
The videos published in the social media by the central mandate show the types of larger navy f/A-18 Super Hornets have released Yemen. They include Standoff AGM-154-A bomb weapons with GPS-and-coated rocket-fired rockets.
Slide bombs, which carry 200 pounds of explosives, can start more than 70 nautical miles from their goals. Cruise rockets developed by Navy Navy can fly more than twice as much.
It is one of the wider war aircraft that are available in this type of operation and have been used in parallel with the Tomahawk cruise rockets launched by accompanying warships.
The use of such long-range weapons is in immediate response to the threat posed by Houthis air-defense weapons, which have filed several US military aircraft in the area. US commanders who are involved in Asia-Pacific programming consider themselves critical to any possible conflict with China.
The United States launched the new March 15 attack on parts of northern Yemeni controlled by Houtis. Navy attack aircraft by truman and Air Force jet aircraft flying from bases in the Middle East have been strikes against Houthi targets every day since US and Yemen officials said.
The initial strikes were Salvo’s opening to what the senior US officials said was a new attack on the fighters and a message to Iran, as Mr Trump seeks a nuclear agreement with his government.
The Pentagon has moved Air Defense Patriot and Thaad systems to some Arabic nations that are worried about the scaling by Houthis in the area. The United Arab Emirates is giving administrative and consulting support to the US military in its campaign in Yemen, a US official said.
Saudi Arabia has led the Emirates and other nations to an air raids campaign against Houtis for more than six years, but stopped after failing to achieve any goal. The Saudi Arabian coalition killed many Yemeni citizens with US ammunition.
Unlike President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr Trump has transferred the power to achieve goals for regional and local governors, allowing them to attack Houthi areas faster and efficiently, the governors say.
Houthi officials say the strikes have hit residential areas and buildings in the heart of Yemen’s capital, Sana, resulting in more than 60 civilians.
According to a report published Thursday by Airwars, a British organization evaluating claims for political damage to conflict, a woman and four children reportedly killed in one of the strikes on March 15.
Many of the attacks have taken place in residential areas, which the report states that “Trump’s administration chooses goals that raise more immediate danger to citizens and may indicate greater tolerance for the risk of political damage”.
One US official said on Thursday that the Pentagon is investigating all civilian claims, adding that the army is largely going to reduce the risks.
On the first day of the new attack, Mr Trump told the social media that the Houthis “have carried out a relentless campaign of piracy, violence and terrorism against Americans and other ships, aircraft and aircraft”.
Mr Trump said this week that US strikes will continue until Houthis “are no longer a threat to freedom of navigation”. He warned that “real pain has not yet come” unless they stopped.
On March 15, Mr Trump also stood out the leaders of Iran.
“For Iran: Support for Houthi’s terrorists must end immediately!” wrote. “Do not threaten the American people, their president, who has received one of the biggest orders in presidential history or worldwide shipping strips.
US intelligence services have struggled to identify and identify Houthi weapons systems, which are produced in underground factories and smuggling from Iran. At the end of 2024, Biden’s administration dedicated more monitoring aircraft to gathering information on Houthi’s goals. Trump’s officials inherited that intelligence and Israel also provided target information, US officials said.
Saeed al-batati References are contributed by Al Mukulla, Yemen and Julian E. Barnes from Washington.
