In the early hours of Oct. 13, the American military carried out its first direct action against Houthi targets in Yemen, firing cruise missiles that destroyed three coastal radar sites. The strike was retaliation for two failed missile attacks on a U.S. Navy destroyer days earlier.
The Houthis presumably targeted the United States because of its support for Saudi Arabia, which has been bombing Houthi rebels and their allies in Yemen since March 2015.
Tensions in the region, already high, had been escalating for nearly a week. On Oct. 8, warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition bombed a funeral gathering in Yemen's capital, killing at least 140 people and wounding hundreds of others in the deadliest attack since the start of the war. Two days later, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for an international investigation into whether the attack, which targeted the funeral of the father of a leading Houthi politician, was a war crime.