US Sending Fighter Jets, Missile Destroyer to UAE To ‘Assist’ After Houthi Attacks
The United States is sending a guided-missile destroyer and fifth-generation fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates following several attacks launched by the Houthi rebels in Yemen; one of the attacks targeted a base housing US troops. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a phone call on Tuesday told UAE’s de facto leader Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan that the US would send the USS Cole as well as the fighter jets to “assist the UAE against the current threat and as a clear signal that the United States stands with the UAE as a long-standing strategic partner,” according to the US Defense Department. The US decision comes after the latest attempted missile strike on Monday, which came during a visit to the Emirates by Israel’s President Isaac Herzog. It was the third attack in recent weeks; the first attack, on January 17, struck an oil storage facility in Abu Dhabi and left three dead. It is an escalation in the Yemen civil war and in the Houthi’s attacks on the Saudi-led coalition in support of the internationally recognized government of Yemen; in the past, most Houthi missile and drone attacks outside of Yemen targeted Saudi Arabia.