US officials say strikes are diminishing Houthi capacity, after Biden comments earn scrutiny

The Pentagon says the US is not at war with the Houthis, calling its five attacks against the militant group "defensive in nature," according to spokesperson Sabrina Singh. 

US forces conducted two airstrikes in the last 24 hours. Thursday morning, US Central Command conducted strikes on two Houthi anti-ship missiles, Singh said, and struck 14 missiles at over a dozen locations on Wednesday night. 

"We do not seek war, we are not at war with the Houthis," Singh said. "But again, what we are doing and the actions that we are taking are defensive in nature. I would turn back to the fact that there have been over 30 attacks by Houthis on 50 different nations that are transiting the Red Sea at this time."

"I can only repeat so many times that we do not seek war with the Houthis, but we will take self-defense actions if we need to protect our troops, protect commercial shipping, and ensure that freedom of navigation is still allowed through international waterways," Singh said.

The US has been able to severely disrupt and destroy Houthi military capabilities since its initial strike on Jan. 11, according to Singh.  

State dept: responses to Houthis will be 'case by case'

Initial assessments indicate the US has been "very successful" in destroying all intended targets, Singh said. 

"The systems, the capabilities that they had available to them yesterday are not the same ones that they have available to them today," Singh said. "So we're going to continue to take the action that we need to disrupt and degrade the Houthis."

The Pentagon said it cannot yet provide assessments on civilian or military casualties. 

The Pentagon "wouldn't say it's not capable" of stopping the Houthis, hours after President Joe Biden told reporters that the US airstrikes will not stop them. 

"That's why you saw the action we took earlier this morning and late yesterday, to degrade and destroy their capabilities," Singh said. 

White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said the US is taking away the Houthis' capability with "each and every strike."

Singh repeated that the end goal for these attacks is to deter the Houthis from attacking commercial shipping on the Red Sea, and that it's up to the Houthis to decide when the attacks stop. 

The UK joined the US in its initial attack last week, however the US was the sole power involved in the past two attacks. 

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said direct military action of this nature is always going to be "case by case" in terms of coalition involvement. 

"We've said from the outset that we did not think that the attacks would stop after our first military strike, that we would have to take further action," Miller said. "You have seen us take further action, and we're committed to continuing to do so because the attacks on commercial shipping are just unacceptable. They don't have anything to do with the conflict in Gaza, and they need to stop."