The White House on Tuesday released texts of letters President Donald Trump sent to two leading Republican lawmakers to explain his directive that U.S. Central Command begin large-scale strikes in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
Numerous airstrikes targeting the Houthis have been reported in recent weeks. A Saudi newspaper on Tuesday reported U.S. military strikes in Yemen have killed at least 500 Houthi fighters, including senior commanders, according to The Jewish News Syndicate.
In March 28 letters to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, president pro tempore of the upper chamber, Trump said he directed the Defense Department “to move additional forces equipped for combat into the Middle East to enhance the defensive capabilities available to United States forces and facilitate necessary military actions.”
“I will no longer allow this band of pirates to threaten and attack United States forces and commercial vessels in one of the most important shipping lanes in the world,” Trump told Johnson and Grassley. “We will act to keep Americans safe.
“These forces include capabilities for air and missile defense of Israel and of locations hosting United States forces as well as fighter, support, and reconnaissance aircraft to enable strikes on Houthi targets. The additional forces have deployed to countries in the Middle East region as detailed in the attached classified annex.”
The president told Johnson and Grassley he directed U.S. Central Command to commence strikes “to eliminate the capabilities the Houthis use for attacks on United States forces and commercial ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters.”
“United States Navy ships and aircraft, along with United States Air Force bombers, fighters, and unmanned aircraft, operating in and around Yemen, have participated in these strikes,” Trump wrote.
“Targets have included Houthi leadership and equipment, command and control facilities, and munitions storage facilities. We will continue these decisive military operations until the Houthi threat to United States forces and navigational rights and freedoms in the Red Sea and adjacent waters has abated.”
The president explained that Houthi militants operating from bases in Yemen have “perpetrated piratical aggressions against shipping and have continued to threaten and attack United States forces in the airspace and waters” in the region.
Trump told the lawmakers he was sending the letters “as part of my efforts to keep the Congress fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Resolution.”
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