America: We Failed to Contain the Yemenis
A US Defense Department official has admitted that the country's army has failed to curb Yemen's Ansarullah.
The US Navy’s CENTCOM commander has acknowledged that the Pentagon’s efforts to prevent Yemen’s Ansarullah group from attacking shipping in the Red Sea have so far had little more than a “shock-absorbing” effect and are unlikely to lead to greater stability or security in the region.
George Wyckoff, the head of US Naval Forces Central Command, presented the new assessment on Wednesday, saying that not only have US attacks failed to change Yemen’s Ansarullah’s behavior, but military force now appears to have no effect on the Yemeni group at all.
“The solution is not going to come through weapons systems,” Wyckoff said at the US 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.
He added: “We have certainly degraded their capabilities. There is no doubt about that. But have we stopped them? No!”
Wyckoff’s comments are consistent with other assessments that have cast doubt on the ability of the United States and its allies to prevent Yemeni military attacks on Israeli shipping in the Red Sea.
A declassified report released by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in July found that cargo ship traffic through the route had fallen by nearly 90% from December 2023 to mid-February 2024.
Despite U.S. and European efforts, Ansarullah forces carried out 43 attacks on ships between Nov. 19 and March 23, costing shipping companies additional money, the report said.
Wyckoff said Wednesday that U.S. forces had seen signs of stabilization since February, but that the stability was “unacceptable” because the number of ships transiting the Bab el-Mandeb Strait had still fallen by half.
