Australian Troops Involved in Strikes on Houthi Rebels in Yemen, Biden Confirms

Air force soldiers prepare to load U.S. made Harpoon AGM-84 anti ship missiles in front of an F-16V fighter jet during a drill at Hualien Air Force base on Aug. 17, 2022. Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images

President Joe Biden has confirmed that Australian personnel were involved in strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen.

“U.S. military forces—together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands—successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways,” Mr. Biden said.

Iran-backed Houthi have attacked international maritime vessels in the Red Sea, including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history, in support of Palestine. There have been more than two dozen such attacks on commercial vessels since mid-November.

Initial reports suggested that around a dozen sites in Yemen had been targeted, using fighter jets from the U.S. Navy and Air Force, and the RAF, backed by ship-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles.

No Retaliation, Claims US

A Houthi spokesperson claimed the rebel group had “instantly retaliated” against Western warships, but a senior U.S. military official said late on Jan. 11 that no response had so far materialised.

Nearly 15 percent of global sea-borne trade passes through the Red Sea, which leads to the Suez Canal, linking the Indian Ocean with the Mediterranean. Ships that cannot travel through the Suez Canal are forced to go around the Horn of Africa, one of the most dangerous stretches of ocean in the world, adding two weeks to their travel time.

Thirty percent of global consumer goods and container shipping passes through the Suez Canal—everything from clothes to washing machines and electronics as well as tanker shipping, such as oil, gas, palm oil, wheat, corn, tea and coffee.

There are fears that continued attacks on shipping may push up the price of such commodities. Already, several of the world’s largest shipping firms—including Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, and the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)—have temporarily stopped using the route, which is mostly used to connect Asia and parts of Africa to Europe, but also carries oil shipments from the Gulf to North America.

Australia Was Asked to Send a Ship, But Sent Troops Instead

The U.S. asked Australia to send a Royal Australian Navy warship to the region, but the government instead sent extra Australian Defence Force personnel to help with security efforts.

The countries involved in the action—together with Germany, South Korea and New Zealand, none of whom participated—jointly issued a statement on Jan. 3 condemning the blockade. “Ongoing Houthi attacks in the Red Sea are illegal, unacceptable, and profoundly destabilizing,” the statement read.

“The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways.”

President Biden has warned that if the latest strikes fail to deter further Houthi attacks, he will “not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.”

The Houthi movement is a Shia Islamist political and military organisation that emerged in Yemen in the 1990s. Its leadership is mostly drawn from members of the Houthi tribe, hence the name.