WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military launched cruise missile strikes on Thursday to knock out three coastal radar sites in areas of Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi forces, retaliating after failed missile attacks this week on a U.S. Navy destroyer, U.S. officials said.

The strikes, authorized by President Barack Obama, represent Washington’s first direct military action against suspected Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen’s conflict.

Still, the Pentagon appeared to stress the limited nature of the strikes, aimed at radar that enabled the launch of at least three missiles against the U.S. Navy ship USS Mason on Sunday and Wednesday.

“These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships and our freedom of navigation,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. Navy destroyer USS Nitze launched the Tomahawk cruise missiles around 4 a.m. (0100 GMT).

“These radars were active during previous attacks and attempted attacks on ships in the Red Sea,” including the USS Mason, one of the officials said, adding the targeted radar sites were in remote areas where the risk of civilian casualties was low.

The official identified the areas in Yemen where the radar were located as near Ras Isa, north of Mukha and near Khoka.

Shipping sources told Reuters sites were hit in the Dhubab district of Taiz province, a remote area overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Straight known for fishing and smuggling.

SAFE PASSAGE

The failed missile attacks on the USS Mason appeared to be part of the reaction to a suspected Saudi-led strike on mourners gathered in Yemen’s Houthi-held capital Sanaa.

The Houthis, who are battling the internationally-recognized government of Yemen President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi, denied any involvement in Sunday's attempt to strike the USS Mason.

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On Thursday, the Houthis reiterated a denial that they carried out the strikes and said they did not come from areas under their control, a news agency controlled by the group reported a military source as saying.

The allegations were false pretexts to “escalate aggression and cover up crimes committed against the Yemeni people”, the source said.

A still image from video released October 13, 2016 shows U.S. military launching cruise missile strikes from U.S. Navy destroyer USS Nitze to knock out three coastal radar sites in areas of Yemen controlled by Houthi forces. REUTERS/DIVIDS via Reuters TV

U.S. officials have told Reuters there were growing indications that Houthi fighters, or forces aligned with them, were responsible for Sunday’s attempted strikes, in which two coastal cruise missiles designed to target ships failed to reach the destroyer.

The missile incidents, along with an Oct. 1 strike on a vessel from the United Arab Emirates, add to questions about safety of passage for military ships around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

The Houthis, who are allied to Hadi’s predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh, have the support of many army units and control most of the north, including the capital Sanaa.

The Pentagon warned against any future attacks.

“The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate,” Cook said.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), a leading member of a Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting to end Houthi control, denounced the attacks on the Mason as an attempt to target the freedom of navigation and to inflame the regional situation.

Michael Knights, an expert on Yemen’s conflict at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, suggested the Houthis, fighters from a Shi’ite sect, could be becoming more militarily aligned with groups such as Lebanon’s Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah.

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“Targeting U.S. warships is a sign that the Houthis have decided to join the axis of resistance that currently includes Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran,” Knight said.

Although Thursday’s strikes against the radar aim to undercut the ability to track and target U.S. ships, the Houthis are still believed to possess missiles that could pose a threat.

Reuters has reported that the coastal defense cruise missiles used against the USS Mason had considerable range, fuelling concern about the kind of weaponry the Houthis appear willing to employ and some of which, U.S. officials believe, is supplied by Iran.

One of the missiles fired on Sunday traveled more than two dozen nautical miles before splashing into the Red Sea off Yemen’s southern coast, one U.S. official said. </s> Multiple surface-to-surface missiles were fired at the USS Mason sailing in international waters in the Red Sea but the warship used on-board countermeasures to defend itself and was not hit, one defense official said, citing initial information.

The latest attack could provoke further retaliation by the U.S. military, which launched cruise missiles on Thursday against three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen in response to the two previous failed missile firings against the Mason.

"The Mason once again appears to have come under attack in the Red Sea, again from coastal defense cruise missiles fired from the coast of Yemen," Admiral John Richardson, U.S. chief of naval operations, said during a ship christening in Baltimore on Saturday.

Another U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters: “We are assessing the situation. All of our ships and crews are safe and unharmed.”

Thursday’s U.S. counter-strikes, authorized by President Barack Obama, marked Washington's first direct military action against suspected Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen's conflict and raised questions about the potential for further escalation.

The Houthi movement earlier this week denied responsibility for the missile attacks on the Mason and warned that it too would defend itself.

The Pentagon on Thursday stressed the limited nature of the strikes, aimed at radar that it suspected enabled the launch of at least three missiles against the Mason on Sunday and Wednesday.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said at the time that the U.S. counter-strikes were not connected to the broader civil war in Yemen, which has unleashed famine and killed more than 10,000 people since March 2015 in the Arab world's poorest country.

The United States, a longtime ally of Saudi Arabia, has provided aerial refueling of warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition striking Yemen and it supplies U.S. weapons to the kingdom.

Iran, which supports the Houthi group, said last week it had deployed two warships to the Gulf of Aden, to protect ship lanes from piracy. </s> The US military launched cruise missile strikes on Thursday that targeted coastal radar sites in areas of Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi forces.

According to initial Pentagon reports, the three sites were destroyed.

The action comes after failed missile attacks this week on a US Navy destroyer, US officials said.

The strikes are Washington’s first direct military action against Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen’s conflict.

However, the Pentagon appeared to stress the defensive nature of the strikes, which were aimed at radar that enabled the launch of at least three missiles against the US Navy destroyer USS Mason since Sunday.

US officials said the USS Nitze launched the Tomahawk cruise missiles around 4am local time.

“These radars were active during previous attacks and attempted attacks on ships in the Red Sea,” including the USS Mason, one of the officials said.

The official said the areas targeted were near Ras Isa, north of Mukha, and near Khoka.

The missile attacks on the USS Mason - the latest of which took place earlier on Wednesday - appeared to be the Houthis’ response to a suspected Saudi-led strike on mourners gathered in Yemen’s Houthi-held capital, Sanaa.

The missile incidents, along with an October 1st strike on a vessel from the United Arab Emirates, add to questions about safety of passage for military ships around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. </s> WASHINGTON: The Pentagon said on Wednesday the United States would respond “at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner” to repeated missile attacks on a US destroyer off the Yemeni coast.

According to Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook, USS Mason on Wednesday was fired on with at least one missile off the Red Sea coast of Yemen.

“The ship employed defensive countermeasures and the missile did not reach USS Mason,” said Cook in a statement. “There was no damage to the ship or its crew.”

It was the second time in four days that USS Mason was targeted around that areas, and in his brief statement on Wednesday, Cook said the missile detected by US military on Wednesday “originated from Houthi-controlled territory near Al Hudaydah, Yemen.” PNA/Xinhua </s> (CNN) An American destroyer struck three sites in Yemen on Thursday, hours after missiles targeted a US warship in the Red Sea for the second time in four days , defense officials said.

The USS Mason was targeted late Wednesday by missiles from territory controlled by the Houthis -- a minority Shia group that has taken control of swathes of Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa.

The strikes marks the first instance of the US firing at Houthi targets since the Yemen civil war erupted in March last year.

The same warship was targeted Sunday, when two missiles were launched within 60 minutes of each other, but in both incidents they missed the ship and landed in the water. The guided-missile destroyer was not damaged in either incident, officials said.

The US warship was conducting routine operations in international waters off the Yemen coast when it was targeted Wednesday, the Pentagon said.

The Houthis have denied carrying out the attacks.

'We will respond to this threat'

The Pentagon said its destroyer USS Nitze launched Tomahawk cruise missiles targeting the coastal radar sites controlled by the Houthi group in "self defense."

Another official said initial assessments indicated all three targets were destroyed, and that the strikes were in remote areas with little risk of civilian casualties or collateral damage.

"USS Mason will continue its operations. Those who threaten our forces should know that US commanders retain the right to defend their ships, and we will respond to this threat at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement.

A Houthi military official said "there is no truth to these allegations" in response to Wednesday's incident. Houthi militias had "nothing to do with this act," the Houthi-affiliated SABA news agency reported.

The US had backed the formally recognized government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, whose government has been essentially forced from Sanaa to Aden. Hadi himself is believed to be in exile in Saudi Arabia, as are several senior members of his administration.

The Houthis support the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

"The United States, United Kingdom, and other governments should immediately suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia," Human Rights Watch said, calling the attack an "apparent war crime."

"The funeral strike underscores the urgent need for credible international investigations into alleged laws-of-war violations in Yemen," it said.

Critics of the military deal, which was approved by the Obama administration, complained it could further drag the US into the war in Yemen and contribute to the worsening humanitarian crisis.

Since peace talks in Kuwait failed in August, the coalition has intensified airstrikes despite criticism from rights groups that the attacks often hit civilian targets with devastating results. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles destroyed three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled territory on Yemen’s Red Sea Coast early Thursday, officials said, a retaliatory action that followed two incidents this week in which missiles were fired at U.S. Navy ships.

The strikes marked the first shots fired by the U.S. in anger against the Houthis in Yemen’s long-running civil war. The U.S. previously only provided logistical support and refueling to the Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen’s Shiite rebels known as Houthis and their allies, including supporters of Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

While the U.S. military has been focused on al-Qaida in Yemen, the Houthis had not been a primary target of American forces until the missile launches from Houthi-controlled territory this week.

No information on casualties from the U.S. missiles was provided by American officials. The three radar sites were in remote areas, where there was little risk of civilian casualties or collateral damage, said a military official who was not authorized to be named and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The destroyer USS Nitze launched the cruise missiles, the official said.

President Barack Obama authorized the strikes at the recommendation of Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. U.S. officials had said earlier that the U.S. was weighing what military response to take.

“These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships and our freedom of navigation in this important maritime passageway,” Cook said following the U.S. action. “The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate, and will continue to maintain our freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb and elsewhere around the world.”

Loai al-Shami, a Houthi spokesman, declined to comment immediately on the U.S. strike.

Early Wednesday, two missiles were fired at the USS Mason, an Arleigh Burke class of guided missile destroyer that is conducting routine operations in the region with the USS Ponce, an amphibious warship. Neither missile got near the ship, said a U.S. military official.

The missiles were fired from the Yemen coast, near the location used Sunday when two missiles were launched at the same two ships, said the official, who was not authorized to be named and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A second official said it wasn’t clear whether the ship’s countermeasures caused the missiles to hit the water on Wednesday or if they would have landed there anyway. The official also spoke on condition of anonymity.

“These unjustified attacks are serious, but they will not deter us from our mission,” the chief of naval operations, Adm. John Richardson, said in a statement Wednesday. “The team in USS Mason demonstrated initiative and toughness as they defended themselves and others against these unfounded attacks over the weekend and again today. All Americans should be proud of them.”

The missiles fired on Sunday were variants of the so-called Silkworm missile, and both also fell harmlessly into the water. The Silkworm is a type of coastal defense cruise missile that Iran has been known to use.

Sunday was the first time that U.S. ships were targeted by a missile launch from Yemen. Last week, an Emirati-leased Swift boat came under rocket fire near the same area and sustained serious damage. The United Arab Emirates described the vessel as carrying humanitarian aid and having a crew of civilians, while the Houthis called the boat a warship.

The U.S. has been considering withdrawing its support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis following Saturday’s airstrike on a funeral and other troubling incidents of civilian casualties as a result of the Saudi bombing campaign.

The strike on the funeral in the capital, Sanaa, killed some 140 people and wounded more than 600. That bombing, among the deadliest of the war, likely sparked the rebels to launch more ballistic missiles in Saudi Arabia and target the U.S. warships in the Red Sea.

Human rights groups have expressed outrage over the deaths and accused the U.S. of complicity, leading the White House to say it was conducting a “review” to ensure U.S. cooperation with longtime partner Saudi Arabia is in line with “U.S. principles, values and interests.”

Meanwhile, an international human rights group, Human Rights Watch, said Thursday that the funeral bombing constitutes an apparent war crime and that the remnants of missiles found at the site of the attack showed that they were American-made. It said a disproportionate number of the victims were civilians when the coalition carried out two airstrikes.

An international investigation is needed into the “atrocity,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for the rights group. She said the attack on the funeral joins a long list of abuses by the coalition.

The U.S. missile launch also could affect relations with Iran, which says it backs the Yemeni rebels but denies arming them. That’s contradicted by the U.S. Navy, which says it has intercepted several shipping boats since the war began carrying Iranian weaponry suspected to be on the way to Yemen.

There was no immediate reaction to the U.S. launch Thursday morning in Iran, which was marking the Shiite commemoration of Ashoura. Houthi-linked media also did not report the strike.

The missile fire by the Houthi raises questions about maritime safety in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which serves as a gateway for oil tankers headed to Europe through the Suez Canal. The U.S. moved more naval ships near the strait after an Emirati-leased Swift boat came under rocket fire near the same area and sustained serious damage. The United Arab Emirates described the vessel as carrying humanitarian aid and having a crew of civilians, while the Houthis called the boat a warship.

Analysts with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy called the Houthi missile fire “a surprisingly aggressive move,” but stressed there were limits to Iran’s control of the rebels.

“Houthi relations with the Islamic Republic resemble the Iran-Hamas relationship more than the Iran-Hezbollah relationship — that is, the Houthis are autonomous partners who usually act in accordance with their own interests, though often with smuggled Iranian arms and other indirect help,” the analysts wrote in a report released early Thursday.

Associated Press writers Maggie Michael in Sanaa, Yemen, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. </s> The USS Mason, which was accompanied by the USS Ponce - an amphibious transport dock - fired defensive salvos in response to the missiles, neither of which hit the ship or caused any damage as it operated north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The renewed attempt to target the U.S. Navy destroyer will add pressure on the U.S. military to retaliate, a move that would represent the first direct U.S. military action against Houthis in Yemen's conflict. The Pentagon hinted about possible retaliatory strikes on Tuesday.

The incidents, along with an Oct. 1 strike on a vessel from the United Arab Emirates, add to questions about safety of passage for military ships around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the world's busiest shipping routes.

The Houthis, who are battling the internationally-recognized government of Yemen President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi, denied any involvement in the previous attempt to strike the USS Mason or the nearby USS Ponce on Sunday.

But U.S. officials have told Reuters there is growing indications that Houthi rebels, despite those denials, were responsible for Sunday's incident.

The rebels appeared to use small skiffs as spotters to help direct the missile attack on the warship. The United States is also investigating the possibility that a radar station under Houthi control in Yemen might have also "painted" the USS Mason, something that would have helped the Houthi fighters pass along coordinates for a strike, the officials have said.

The Houthis, who are allied to Hadi's predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh, have the support of many army units and control most of the north including the capital Sanaa.

Reuters has learned that the coastal defense cruise missiles used against the USS Mason on Sunday had considerable range, adding to concerns about the kind of heavy weaponry that the Houthis appear willing to employ and some of which U.S. officials believe is supplied by Iran. </s> Breaking News Navy strikes radar sites off Yemen in response to missile attacks on ships

The guided-missile destroyer USS Mason nests alongside the guided-missile destroyer USS Stout in this Sept. 4, 2016 photo.

The United States attacked three radar sites in Yemen early Thursday in response to missile attacks launched by pro-Iranian rebels on Navy ships off Yemen’s coast.

Initial assessments show the Houthi rebel-controlled sites were destroyed, according to a statement from Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook.

The USS Nitze launched Tomahawk missiles at targets north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which lies between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, according to the Washington Post and Pentagon reports.

“These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships and our freedom of navigation in this important maritime passageway,” Cook said.

The strikes were authorized by President Barack Obama on the recommendations of Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The radar site strikes followed attacks launched Sunday at the destroyer USS Mason and the amphibious staging base USS Ponce while the ships transited international waters, according to earlier Pentagon statements.

On Oct. 1, a missile heavily damaged the HSV-2 Swift, a former Navy high-speed vessel operated by the United Arab Emirates, according to reports and photos released by the Emirati government.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack on the Emirati ship but denied responsibility for attacking the U.S. Navy, according to the Washington Post. However, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said Tuesday that “the facts certainly point” to Houthi involvement in the attacks on USS Mason and USS Ponce.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea form part of a critical commercial passageway for oilers and other commercial traffic transiting through the Suez Canal.

“The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate, and will continue to maintain our freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb, and elsewhere around the world,” Cook said. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles destroyed three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled territory on Yemen’s Red Sea Coast early Thursday, officials said, a retaliatory action that followed two incidents this week in which missiles were fired at U.S. Navy ships.

The strikes marked the first shots fired by the U.S. in anger against the Houthis in Yemen’s long-running civil war. The U.S. previously only provided logistical support and refueling to the Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen’s Shiite rebels known as Houthis and their allies, including supporters of Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

While the U.S. military has been focused on al-Qaida in Yemen, the Houthis had not been a primary target of American forces until the missile launches from Houthi-controlled territory this week.

No information on casualties from the U.S. missiles was provided by American officials. The three radar sites were in remote areas, where there was little risk of civilian casualties or collateral damage, said a military official who was not authorized to be named and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The destroyer USS Nitze launched the cruise missiles, the official said.

President Barack Obama authorized the strikes at the recommendation of Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. U.S. officials had said earlier that the U.S. was weighing what military response to take.

“These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships and our freedom of navigation in this important maritime passageway,” Cook said following the U.S. action. “The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate, and will continue to maintain our freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb and elsewhere around the world.”

Meanwhile, the state news agency Saba— under Houthis’ control— quoted an unnamed military official as saying that US accusations that a US destroyer had come under attack from areas under control of Houthis were false. He said, “all these claims are totally untrue and that the popular committees (Houthi militias) have nothing to do with such action.”

He added, “such claims are part of the general context of creating false justifications to escalate assaults and cover up the continuous crimes committed by the aggression against the Yemeni people, along with the blockade imposed on it, and after the increasing condemnations to such barbaric and hideous crimes against Yemenis.”

Loai al-Shami, a Houthi spokesman, had earlier declined to comment on the U.S. strike.

Early Wednesday, two missiles were fired at the USS Mason, an Arleigh Burke class of guided missile destroyer that is conducting routine operations in the region with the USS Ponce, an amphibious warship. Neither missile got near the ship, said a U.S. military official.

The missiles were fired from the Yemen coast, near the location used Sunday when two missiles were launched at the same two ships, said the official, who was not authorized to be named and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A second official said it wasn’t clear whether the ship’s countermeasures caused the missiles to hit the water on Wednesday or if they would have landed there anyway. The official also spoke on condition of anonymity.

“These unjustified attacks are serious, but they will not deter us from our mission,” the chief of naval operations, Adm. John Richardson, said in a statement Wednesday. “The team in USS Mason demonstrated initiative and toughness as they defended themselves and others against these unfounded attacks over the weekend and again today. All Americans should be proud of them.”

Col. Walid Zeyad, a top naval official in Hodeida, told the AP that radars were in three different sites: Ras Eissa and Khoukha (both in Hodeida) and al-Makha port, of the western province of Taiz. He said that they were hit early morning around 7 a.m.

The area is a hub of weapons smuggling. The general impression in Yemen was that since the Saudi imposition of a blockade, and the air campaign, all radars were destroyed. When asked Zeyad if these radars are new, he declined to comment.

The missiles fired on Sunday were variants of the so-called Silkworm missile, and both also fell harmlessly into the water. The Silkworm is a type of coastal defense cruise missile that Iran has been known to use.

Sunday was the first time that U.S. ships were targeted by a missile launch from Yemen. Last week, an Emirati-leased Swift boat came under rocket fire near the same area and sustained serious damage. The United Arab Emirates described the vessel as carrying humanitarian aid and having a crew of civilians, while the Houthis called the boat a warship.

The U.S. has been considering withdrawing its support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis following Saturday’s airstrike on a funeral and other troubling incidents of civilian casualties as a result of the Saudi bombing campaign.

The strike on the funeral in the capital, Sanaa, killed some 140 people and wounded more than 600. That bombing, among the deadliest of the war, likely sparked the rebels to launch more ballistic missiles in Saudi Arabia and target the U.S. warships in the Red Sea.

Human rights groups have expressed outrage over the deaths and accused the U.S. of complicity, leading the White House to say it was conducting a “review” to ensure U.S. cooperation with longtime partner Saudi Arabia is in line with “U.S. principles, values and interests.”

Meanwhile, an international human rights group, Human Rights Watch, said Thursday that the funeral bombing constitutes an apparent war crime and that the remnants of missiles found at the site of the attack showed that they were American-made. It said a disproportionate number of the victims were civilians when the coalition carried out two airstrikes.

An international investigation is needed into the “atrocity,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for the rights group. She said the attack on the funeral joins a long list of abuses by the coalition.

The U.S. missile launch also could affect relations with Iran, which says it backs the Yemeni rebels but denies arming them. That’s contradicted by the U.S. Navy, which says it has intercepted several shipping boats since the war began carrying Iranian weaponry suspected to be on the way to Yemen.

There was no immediate reaction to the U.S. launch Thursday morning in Iran, which was marking the Shiite commemoration of Ashoura. Houthi-linked media also did not report the strike.

The missile fire by the Houthi raises questions about maritime safety in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which serves as a gateway for oil tankers headed to Europe through the Suez Canal. The U.S. moved more naval ships near the strait after an Emirati-leased Swift boat came under rocket fire near the same area and sustained serious damage. The United Arab Emirates described the vessel as carrying humanitarian aid and having a crew of civilians, while the Houthis called the boat a warship.

Analysts with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy called the Houthi missile fire “a surprisingly aggressive move,” but stressed there were limits to Iran’s control of the rebels.

“Houthi relations with the Islamic Republic resemble the Iran-Hamas relationship more than the Iran-Hezbollah relationship — that is, the Houthis are autonomous partners who usually act in accordance with their own interests, though often with smuggled Iranian arms and other indirect help,” the analysts wrote in a report released early Thursday.

Associated Press writers Maggie Michael in Sanaa, Yemen, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
The Obama administration through the U.S. Defense Department says it will take appropriate action against those responsible for October 9 unsuccessful cruise missile attack, apparently fired from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen, upon the USS Mason.