US airstrikes in Yemen: Houthis bombed by US, UK militaries | LiveNOW from FOX

We have breaking news to report you see there live pictures coming in from Jerusalem there in Northern Israel by the Lebanese border and Southern Israel by the gazen border there right now we are getting word I want to put up this tweet here from Trey Yanks that as we speak right now us and UK air strikes are targeting houthi positions in Yemen.

Uh we want to bring into the conversation right now retired Marine intelligence officer and National Security analyst our friend Hal keer Hal joins me Hal good to see you all right so it's finally happening we have been talking about this what for the last week on whether or not US forces were going to do something to this effect and.

From reports right now they are doing just that what more do we know what have you heard Hal uh Andrew we have the most breaking news right now uh there is really isn't much more out there than the fact the air strikes are going on I would point out it's night uh so there's it's very difficult to see what's out there there.

Really aren't uh any media Outlets that would be floating off the coast of Yemen that could see where earning strikes along the Shor line or something so uh the best we're probably going to get is maybe some satellite imagery but that's going to take time to see where the strikes have taken place what I do expect though is that Great Britain and.

The US will probably provide some video to show some of these strike missions uh and it was it was pretty much inevitable it's going to happen uh as you know earlier today the British prime minister uh formally announced that he had authorized uh British forces to strike houie positions in Yemen uh when you have an announcement like that that's.

Pretty much as big a green light as you're ever going to see from Great Britain and certainly Great Britain's not going to do that unless they're you know doing that alongside the us as part of the task force command structure so it pro pretty much implied that the US and the UK were about to do this also the UN which is played an interesting.

Role throughout the entire conflict you know to say the least gave what it called its last and final warning to the houthis which I thought was kind of an interesting choice of words coming from the United Nations uh saying that this was after the US and its allies had also given its last and final warning to the houthis basically saying stop attacking.

Shipping in the Red Sea and the Bob MB okay with all that said everything was pointing toward s uh they're going to be strikes at houie positions and where those will probably be is uh those locations where theyve seen drones being launched where they have seen missiles being launched uh it will probably be much more directed towards those.

Although I wouldn't rule out uh command and control nodes as well that's also a very likely thing uh that we may see and that opens up a different array of possible targets that could be hit I guess uh Mahal maybe it's too early to tell but do you think houthi Rebels uh will be cowed by this in any form or will they be emboldened uh will they.

Take this as some type of provocation where they'll just ramp up their attacks on you know vessels and Maritime travel there in the Red Sea and elsewhere or or will this send the message that us and UK forces want it to send do you think well I think rhetorically they're going to be very bold and audacious and make statements they have already made.

Statements they said if you attack us we will really attack you and and I kind of look at their array of what they have and and I my first thought was attack us with what what more are you going to attack us with that you haven't attacked us with so far they have a lot of missiles they have a lot of drones but they like anyone else have a limited.

Inventory and they've been and and when they got the last and final warning uh their response was to send about 20 missiles and drones uh going out to seea some of which were targeting uh US Navy warships and I thought that was pretty clear uh really what I think is we're going to watch their actions uh I think the the truth.

Of the matter will be in what they do less than what they say you know if we suddenly see a slew of drones and missiles coming out to uh hit shipping uh then I think that's going to be uh the response uh I think whatever they say uh is secondary compared to what they actually do on the other hand we have had as we and the Brits and our.

Other allies have had a lot of time to work through the target intelligence to figure out where we want to hit and of course uh like any other strike it's not just making a statement you're you're trying to degrade uh your opponent's capabilities and we'll see how successful that degradation is in terms of how it will actually prevent further.

Strikes or diminish further strikes simply because they hit the right places yeah and uh we did have the Pentagon press briefing today uh this was kind of a key feature of some of the line of questioning from reporters there uh to the Pentagon press secretary Major General Patrick Ryder as well Hal what does this mean and Hal I just want to.

Kind of set the the tone here for the viewers who are just joining um this is happening right now I I mean it couldn't be any perfect timing for for you coming on but us and UK forces according to reports are striking we don't know how many um houthi targets inside of Yemen how you hear time and time again about some of the criticisms that this Israel.

Hamas War um will spill over into a wider regional conflict especially many here who are critical of it uh are saying that the US might have to get involved this is now a kinetic War do you think that um criticism now is valid that we are involved in a way that we were not before this was all happening of course we've sent some of these.

Aircraft carrier strike groups there into the Mediterranean to kind of deter Hezbollah but we're striking forces inside a sovereign country as we speak right now what are we to make of that how do we interpret our role now in all of this well our our role is now uh we're an active participant if you will before we're deterrence I mean we're.

Basically deterring uh Hezbollah from attacking from the north because of our our uh our carrier sitting off the coast but now we're actually uh engaged in combat operations one could argue though uh because of what was happening before with taking out missiles and drones in the Red Sea and certainly because of our strikes in Iraq and Syria particularly.

Our most recent strike uh up in Iraq uh which uh was you know basically a very targeted operation where they we tracked uh uh basically uh we tracked a Target and then took him out with a drone that's the sort of thing that that said we're creeping more towards that now I can't say any better than than uh uh recently retired General McKenzie the.

Former sencom Commander uh said it yesterday you know he was trying to explain the sort of weighted way that we assess what the Iranians will do and in his uh estimation he didn't see the Iranians um initiating a fullscale war or really entering into this and and there's a lot of stuff that he intuitively understands.

Because of his position in the region but but basically this I wouldn't say this is opening the door wide open for a wider conflict what this is doing though it's addressing a huge threat that affects the entire Globe which is they have shut off the uh the waterway that moves 15% of global trade yeah this is one of the most important waterways one.

Of the most important channels in the world the sus canals um traffic is down uh more than 30% I I hear it's actually much less or much more than 30% the the diminishment of a movement of ships through there you have major shipping lines that have said we can't move our ships through there you have uh tankers uh LG especially but also Diesel and.

Regular oil that are going Around the Horn of Africa to avoid um this uh going through the de straight uh that's just not a sustainable situation yeah you know so even if it widens a war something had to be done I see Hal uh I want to get your thoughts too because there was some reporting to suggest um that President Biden was going to make.

Some type of statement about all of this tonight that's no longer on the table we'll see whether or not he makes a statement sometime tomorrow on camera or whether or not the White House um or us centcom or the Pentagon might issue a statement later tonight uh because report reports are coming in that this is happening right now um that air.

Strikes are being conducted against houthi targets inside of Yemen how I'd be remiss if I didn't bring this up uh we know that Secretary of Defense Floyd Austin is still in the hospital right now recovering um and we got this news today from the um Inspector General there at the Pentagon uh saying this that they will review the.

Hospitalization notification procedures the Inspector General there at the defense department saying this the objective of the review is to examine the roles processes procedures responsibilities and actions related to the Secretary of defenses hospitalization in December and January and assess whether the dod's policies.

And procedures are sufficient to ensure timely and appropriate notifications and the effective transition of authorities as may be warranted due to health-based or other unavailability of senior leadership all right h now this had to be approved of course by President Biden to give the green light for these air strikes to take place Secretary of.

Defense Biden Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is in a hospital room right now as we speak uh yes he has assumed his full roles and responsibilities um but if that were not the case here if Austin was still you know in the ICU recovering uh if Kathleen Hicks was his Deputy she was assuming the full roles as well would.

This have all looked different uh when you take the Austin Scandal and put it up with what we know is happening right now what do you make of that I I guess thankfully yes he has assumed full role and responsibility there still as Secretary of Defense but if this were to happen have happened three four five days ago it would have been a much.

Different picture would it not have yeah I I think it would have been a little more complicated uh to a certain degree although I have no doubt that Kathleen Hicks uh could have stepped up and uh fulfilled that role I don't think there would have been a problem there uh there is a problem with notifications I would point out a problem with that.

Investigation the office of Inspector General uh for the Pentagon reports to the Secretary of Defense I I know that we'd love to say that there's perfect Integrity uh in all government agencies and organizations but at the end of the day you have the Secretary of Defense essentially ordering his own investigative agency to investigate him.

Okay I don't think that's going to be satisfactory to everybody on Capitol Hill I'm I'm not even sure if that's going to be completely satisfactory to everybody in the white house I think you're going to have to have some sort of outside uh neutral investigative organization take a look at this entire entire episode of what happened uh and.

Certainly not one that that reports directly to the uh the Secretary of Defense even if it's the the best you know most objective investig ation in the world it will still raise eyebrows just because of how the oig is structured or the IG I should say is structured within the Department of Defense that's just that's just simple.

Reality that is the chain of command and uh so that's going to be a little bit of a challenge there uh one thing I would point out is that the uh Co the combatant commanders the cocom or what we call the cocom commanders uh basically they report directly to the commander-in-chief um they don't you know they they usually will go through.

The Secretary of Defense usually the secretary of defense is a big part of whatever they do on something like this but nothing really gets between the commander of us Central Command and uh and the president of the United States I mean bottom line is you know one can say chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or The Joint Chiefs play a role in that and.

Yes they do uh but at the end of the day uh the the you know if I was a US Central Command Commander uh and you ask me what's my chain of command I I would probably say the president of the United States that's just kind of how it works that's why they are a unified Commander yeah and of course a lot of people there in this.

Apparatus make recommendations to the president uh president bid is the one to ultimately give the green light on this and I don't want to speculate at all here I was just saying you know could you have invisioned a scenario where maybe President Biden wanted to do this five or six days ago uh maybe he couldn't because of Secretary of Defense.

Austin's incapacity uh what have you and I'm purely speculating here that we have no reporting to suggest that but could you have seen a scenario or a situation where that could have been a major obstacle to carrying out these strikes we're seeing right now or no I I would say uh the scenario I could have seen is he wants the counsil of his secretary of.

Defense he wants to really uh talk this through I mean that's part of the decision-making process and and of course the SE def wasn't available because he was incapacitated that is that that's a realistic thing to uh discuss that that may have actually that could have very well been the situation that he wanted.

To discuss this with him and he couldn't find him but but I would say this there's a lot going on in the world uh there's a lot going on in the United States right now and I don't think the president's uh itinerary is short of things to do sure so I I you know the fact that he didn't find out till Thursday that may be an indication of.

The let's just say the demand curve which was the president didn't need to talk to him that soon oh I see just because he felt like he was getting enough counsel you got remember uh Jake Sullivan is up there others are up there who are talking to him all the time and uh and so it's not like he's short of of inputs it's not he's definitely not.

Short of intelligence um uh the president of United States gets the best intelligence of any leader in the world right and gets it every single day so um so I don't it's it's it's interesting speculation I haven't seen any indication that that was the case though okay I I want to put this up here for viewers who are just joining us now.

We're a little bit off the top of the hour Reuters putting out this tweet there the US and Britain have started carrying out strikes against targets linked to houthis in Yemen according to four us officials the first time strikes have been launched against the Iran back group since it started targeting shipping in the Red Sea here Hal um you.

Know we'll wait for the relevant kind of entities to describe all of this um before they do that uh what do you think some of these targets include here they're in Yemen I I think what you're looking at and it's going to be an interesting array you know some of these drones uh can get launched from some very small.

Expeditionary airfields uh there are drones I don't know if they're using those drones that you can launch without an Airfield at all there's various catapult devices that can be used to put drones in the air uh usually gets into some recovery issues uh depending on how you want to get them back but uh so um it may or may not include larger.

Airfields depending on how these things were launched uh the missile launchers uh are not reliant on airfields at all and what I think you're going to see is they're going to be aiming at wherever the missiles were launched uh wherever the uh the the drones themselves were launched if those targets present themselves uh there is a possibility.

That these you know many of these systems may be mobile hence there may not really be much to hit in which case they going to go after wherever they're stored so they're going to hit those Logistics areas uh where do they keep the missiles uh where do they keep the uh drones uh anything that that that feeds into the houy uh Target.

Intelligence uh system uh Radars uh maybe even Coastal observation posts whatever the houthis are using to identify ships at Sea uh we'd certainly like to take those out and if if nothing else kind of blind the houth so they can't see what's moving in the Red Sea certainly Over the Horizon okay uh so those are all things we want to hit and.

Then I think uh based on what uh everything's being said and I have nothing nothing I can point to specifically but it is kind of the way we do things uh command control and Communications those are are typically high on the list of things to take out um although I would not rule out that they may go for some higher profile.

Targets when I say command and control uh we have in the past aimed it very high up in the command structure I see uh sometimes to political leadership so that's not impossible I don't know if we're going to do that but again I'm not looking at the classified feeds and I'm not sitting in the room and I'm not having that discussion so I can't tell.

You and and there's and by way when you do that it is a very Dynamic back and forth discussion because of all the potential implications of whatever it is these are not easily arrived at decisions yeah um decapitating the political leadership of the houthis uh that would definitely send uh a message uh nonetheless how I got to talk about.

The wider implications of this we're still in it right now but Yemen is Saudi Arabia's Southern neighbor they share a border um Saudi Arabia did not want the United States to do this I think maybe you can fill our viewers in briefly but Yemen and Saudi Arabia have fought a pretty nasty War over the last eight nine years uh they finally reached to.

Truce very recently here Saudi Arabia was very very hesitant and reluctant for this because of how fragile that truce is is that in Jeopardy tonight uh maybe okay uh I would I would think that it might be I would also think that whatever we're doing tonight was probably a topic of conversation.

When uh secretary blinkin was in Saudi Arabia uh I I don't see a situation where we'd ever be blindsiding uh the Saudis on what we're doing in this uh in fact I think we're working extremely close with them at every step of the way uh in fact I wouldn't be surprised if those last and final warnings were things that were coordinated the.

Language was coordinated with the Saudis to some degree or at least letting them know that this is where they're at Saudi Arabia like every other country in there realizes that that it's an impossible situation to let the houthis uh basically bottle up the Red Sea and and and stop access to and from the uh sez Canal okay they they realize the.

Situation's changed so um it may the truth may break down but I gotta tell you there's no love loss between the houthis and the Saudis okay they were looking at real politic stuff in the region and when they were saying that that was the situation then okay this is the situation now all right uh Hal how to your point about what may a houthi.

Response look like I want to put up this quote there from one of these senior houthi commanders uh in Al jazer saying this any American attack will not remain without a response the response will be greater than the attack that was carried out with 20 drones and a number of missiles this is abdal Malik aloui uh he said that in a televised speech uh we.

Are more determined he said to Target ships linked to Israel and we will not back down from that this was what before the new year Hal when President Biden had come out and said this is what we might do against the houthis uh this was abdal Malik alou's response to that and the attacks have commenced ever since uh and so we'll see whether or not there's.

Going to be some type of degradation in the attacks or diminishment in the attacks after tonight um so we just have to wait and see there's a lot of unknowns still um at this point all we know is that according to reports uh from Fox from Reuters the Associated Press and others um that these um targeted air strikes are happening right.

Now and so we don't know how long they're going to last we don't know how many targets are going to be struck and we don't know how many houthi Rebels are going to be killed here now Hal my other question is remember uh at the very outset of the Biden Administration the houthi rebels were taken off of the fto list that's the foreign terrorist.

Organization designation list as well we're striking them in Yemen tonight are they going to be put back on the list don't you have to have both here that would you don't have to logically it would seem to to track wouldn't it you you you bring up a great Point uh absolutely I would imagine that they're going on the fto list pretty soon all.

Right uh my understanding was they were already in the process of uh kind of reversing that decision I hadn't seen it had been formally announced and uh to my knowledge it has not been firly made I don't know why I don't know what was uh so difficult about reversing that decision um but yeah they don't have to be designated as a foreign terrorist.

Organization although uh under international law uh there are some things that do make strikes of this kind a little bit easier however the thing is the houthis have been launching these strikes against uh civilian Maritime shipping against other ships uh throughout the area you know and don't forget they also shot down a US drone.

Way back when that's right so there's a a number of things they've been doing so with all that said there's plenty of of Reason uh if you will I'm going to use the word justification for for our striking back and the fact that the United Nations which is which is not the most unified body as you know on a number of.

Things that they would come out and uh issue the last and final warning with language very similar to what we just said the the a few days before which that in itself is a whole discussion but um that they put that out I think that gives us enough uh justification uh rationale if you will certainly under international law to do what we're going.

To do I I would point out though this kind of goes back to the earlier thing you know we you know that you know Al houie says we fired 20 drones and missiles at you typical houie rhetoric by the way um but uh but with that said um we would like to have this end up with the situation where they can't fire 20 missiles and drones all right so.

That's part of the targeting thinking that goes into whatever we're doing I don't know if we have that strike capability you know the USS Eisenhower is out there the British have a lot of stuff out there yeah I don't know if we're going to do anything out of Djibouti uh that's our big base uh it's on the it's right across the water.

Literally from Yemen uh I I don't know if we're going to do anything out of there I don't know if the jaushan would want us to do anything out there there might be a a a reason that they would say you will not do strike missions like this out of here uh but but with that um it it it's a possibility and and and one of the things that's kind of interesting.

Is and and it's a very interesting place to be because we have our big US base there and then literally right down the way is one is the only Chinese overseas military base which is very unusual that China and the us would have military bases in the same place but we do uh I would point to a few days ago when Costco the uh the big Chinese uh you.

Know Maritime carrier I think the biggest Chinese Maritime carrier uh announced that it would not be sending its ships through the Red Sea because of the threat of houthi Rebel strikes I thought that was very interesting you know when Costco made that decision that that it's fascinating particularly when you consider that that Iran and China uh.

Have a a rather close relationship uh wasn't it was a few year a couple years ago I believe that that China announced about a year and a half ago China announced is making a huge investment uh in terms of belt and Road uh initiative uh activities into Iran and so with that said I just find that uh rather interesting that Costco said.

Nope we're not going in there and that's just a a real a a real world decision um certainly not uh an ideological one or a political one per se that's more of a real world we're not sending our ships in because we're not sure the houthis won't try and Target us uh which could be targeting by mistake but uh at least that would be Chinese perspective on it.

So I find that interesting that is which back to Djibouti which is maybe the Chinese are saying okay we've lost control of this situation or if they ever had control of it they may be saying quietly very diplomatically yeah we all agree something's got to be done I haven't heard anything to that that effect but that is a reasonable.

Inference based on how things are rolling out of course the Chinese perspective will have to monitor as well also the Iranian response uh what they say after all of this that's kind of what I'll be looking out for as well I want to put up this tweet here we're getting some more reporting from our friends there at Politico Lara Seligman.

Who covers the defense department so closely saying this the US and UK with support from Australia the Netherlands Bahrain and Canada conducted joint strikes tonight against The Targets in Yemen that's according to a DOD official who said that to Lara and the strikes involved us aircrafts ships and submarines hell so not just air strikes.

Here isn't that interesting well the submarines will probably be launching missiles the ships would probably be launching missiles too but here's something and we don't see that as much these days this kind of hearkens back to another era depending on the anti-ship missile threat depending on uh uh how they've degraded.

And shaped the battle space if you will there's a possibility that the ships could potentially uh in certain areas possibly getting close enough to employ Naval gunfire and uh and that really hearkens back to another era uh if you remember the big ships with the big guns now our ships today don't have uh as much uh.

Naval guns or as much in the way of Naval guns as they used to uh we certainly don't have battleships with their 16-inch guns anymore and the ships we have tend to be more focused on on Missile strikes uh than uh than than using their you know their their 5 in deck guns uh to do stuff but it is a possibility and uh and I can tell you if.

I was a captain one of those ships and and that was within the scope of what we could do um I might look at a way that I could do it within reason I don't want to put my ship at undue risk because of it but uh but that is a possibility of one of the ways that they can be employed the reason I bring that up is because if they getting close enough to.

Use the naval guns they could put in a volume of fire on certain targets where they would be uh relatively assured that they had achieved whatever goals or end State they were hoping on that particular Target set all right how C we got to leave it at that uh I think we'll be relying on your expertise a lot over the next couple of days here and we have.

To wait and see uh official statements maybe they will come in tonight from the Pentagon centcom the White House who knows um but is a very you know active developing fluid situation there in the Middle East how can't thank you enough appreciate it oh thank you Andrew all right in the meantime let's keep it moving here of course my colleagues.

Throughout the night Carell laara and Austin westall will also be providing updates uh on this ongoing situation there uh in Yemen uh as some of these houie targets are being struck as we speak by a coalition of allies partners and forces from the US the the UK Canada Australia as well live now look there uh in London foggy London Town at night.

Time there the London Skyline we also are continuing to get more details want to pull up the AP filing here from our friend Josh breslo he tweeted out this um from the Associated Press that the US and British militaries were bombing more than a dozen sites used by the Iranian backed houthis in Yemen today it's a massive retaliatory strike using warship.

Launched tomahawk missiles and fighter jets uh so uh that's quite interesting as well uh we're getting so many more details into this wider picture uh let's just take a quick commercial break

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