Analysts: US strikes on Houthis reflect a tactical shift in the Pentagon

US military strikes on Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen have been more intense and less frequent in populated areas than under the Biden administration, military analysts said this week, according to the Stars and Stripes website.

Brian Clark, director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute, said the strikes, carried out earlier this week and on Monday, targeted larger radar, command, and missile launch sites in cities.

He added that similar measures during the previous White House were limited to isolated rural facilities that were typically small weapons depots or command and control centers.

"While the strikes earlier this week may have resulted in civilian casualties and damage, they also likely degraded Houthi capabilities more effectively than previous strikes," continued Clarke, who believes renewed US efforts could prevent the Houthis from targeting shipping and resupplying their forward bases.

US Air Force General Alex Grynkewich, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a press conference on Monday with Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell that US forces successfully struck more than 30 Houthi facilities over three days, likely killing dozens of Houthi fighters.

Grynkewich said that Yemeni citizens were not expected to be among the dead.

Grynkewich and Parnell provided few details about the targets and weapons, citing the need for secrecy during an ongoing operation. However, they said that at least one drone facility was targeted in Saturday's strikes, which killed several people.

Clarke said the US strikes likely included the use of joint direct attack munitions and laser-guided bombs, as the attacks involved aircraft.

"Laser-guided bombs will likely be required to achieve precision targeting of targets in populated areas, and aircraft will need to use large-volume Joint Direct Attack Munitions to destroy buried command bunkers and weapons caches," Clarke added.

He noted that the Houthis "lack advanced air defenses, so aircraft can get close enough to use bombs."

Farea Al-Muslimi, a research fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House who focuses on Yemen and the wider Gulf region, said that strikes launched by superior forces have so far failed to deter the Houthis.

"The Houthis are a reckless and careless group," Al-Muslimi added, adding that Iran is pleased with the Houthis' actions and is unlikely to intervene against them.

Other analysts said that continued US strikes in Yemen are unlikely to weaken the Houthis' resolve. Jan van Tol, a retired Navy captain and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, said that bombing individuals or groups into submission has a long history of failure.

Van Tol cited examples of this, including US operations in Vietnam, strikes against Al Qaeda in the 1990s, and operations against Saddam Hussein in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Houthi attacks will continue “until the sponsor, the Iranian regime, is punished sufficiently, financially or otherwise, to cause (Ayatollah) Khamenei to assess that the costs of rearming the Houthis and their other proxies are not worth the benefits,” Van Tol said in an email.

He added, "The regime has a consistent and remarkable record of relentlessly pursuing its goals for more than 45 years."