Pentagon 'shocked' by Houthi weapons stockpile

At a defense summit in Washington earlier this week, Pentagon defense acquisition chief Bill LaPlante said the Houthi movement’s capabilities were “becoming frightening.”

“What the Houthis have done in the last six months has really shocked me,” said LaPlante, adding that the movement is acquiring increasingly sophisticated weapons, including missiles “capable of doing really incredible things.”

Over the past year, the Houthis - who control Yemen's capital Sanaa and key areas in the country's northwest - have disrupted shipping in the Red Sea in an effort to pressure Israel over the conflict in Gaza.

On November 12, the Houthis claimed to have successfully launched a missile attack on the US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, as well as two US destroyers in the Red Sea. These operations reportedly involved cruise missiles and drones. Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree claimed that the movement could disrupt US forces for eight hours.

For its part, the Pentagon said drones and missiles launched by the Houthis were intercepted and no US warships were damaged. A spokesman added that he was not aware of any attack on the US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln.

The attack comes as tensions in the region continue to escalate. The Houthis are using military advances to make political demands, such as an end to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

While the US has accused Iran of supporting the Houthis, Tehran has previously denied involvement, insisting that the movement's fighters operate independently.

In a related development, on November 14, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) released a video recording a precise airstrike on a Houthi target in Yemen.

In a post on the X social media platform, CENTCOM said it had carried out a series of strikes on multiple Houthi weapons storage facilities in areas controlled by the movement in Yemen, in response to attacks by gunmen on international commercial vessels, as well as US coalition and commercial vessels in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden.

Since November, Houthi fighters in Yemen have carried out nearly 100 attacks on ships passing through the Red Sea and said they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's year-long war in Gaza.