US Central Command described that at one point during the attack the Houthis fired an anti-ship ballistic missile directly against US Navy and commercial ships in the Gulf of Aden. “There were no injuries or damage reported by US, coalition, or commercial ships,” CENTCOM said.

Of the 90 total projectiles fired, the CENTCOM says its forces intercepted over 80 drones and at least six ballistic missiles total.

“Iran’s continued unprecedented, malign, and reckless behavior endangers regional stability and the safety of US and coalition forces,” CENTCOM said the the statement.

“CENTCOM remains postured to support Israel’s defense against these dangerous actions by Iran. We will continue to work with all our regional partners to increase regional security,” it added.

The Houthis are expected to launch another phase of intense attacks in the scenario that Israel hits back at Iran. On Monday Israel’s leadership in the war cabinet appears to have greenlighted such a retaliation attack.

On Monday it has also been coming to light to huge degree to which the US and Western allies were key in helping Israel repel the Iranian attack. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Saturday’s Iranian strike on Israel was huge by any standard. Tehran launched more than 170 explosive-laden drones, around 120 ballistic missiles and about 30 cruise missiles, according to Israel. The damage could have been catastrophic. As it turned out, almost all were intercepted.

That success was due to a combination of Israel’s sophisticated air-defense system and critical assistance provided by the U.S. and other Western and Arab partners. American, British and Jordanian warplanes played an especially important role in downing drones. Most of the Iranian drones and missiles were destroyed before they even reached Israeli airspace.

At this point the Middle East is bracing for a potential bigger Israel-Iran war which would likely spread to include Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen.

This is why the US and European leaders are busy urging restraint for Israel. A bigger war would also send the price of oil soaring, worsening Biden’s reelection chances.

Most Americans don’t realize this, but this weekend Taiwan will hold an election which may determine whether the U.S. and China go to war.

In fact, China has literally framed this election as “a choice between war and peace”…

Across the Pacific, Taiwan will this weekend hold one of the most closely watched polls globally and its outcome could impact rocky U.S.-China ties and dictate geopolitical trends in 2024. China has called it a choice between war and peace.

On January 13, 19.54 million people—83 percent of Taiwan’s population—will be eligible to vote, including 1.03 million possible first-timers, according to the Central Election Commission in Taipei. At stake are the promise of myriad social reforms, the future of Taiwan’s economic and energy policies, and, as always, its relationship with neighboring China, balanced against its decades-long closeness with America.

We shall see what happens, but the candidate that has been leading in the polls is the candidate that China hates the most…

Taiwan presidential front-runner Lai Ching-te’s lead over his main opposition rival has narrowed significantly, setting the stage for a close race in the final weeks before the pivotal vote.

Lai’s ticket, representing the ruling party, leads with 37.3% of support followed by Hou Yu-ih’s of opposition Kuomintang (KMT) with 33.4%, according to a survey conducted between Dec. 19 and Dec. 21 by pollster My Formosa. Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People’s Party trails with 17.7%.

If Lai Ching-te wins, a Chinese invasion becomes very likely.

And the moment that China invades Taiwan, the U.S. and China will be at war.

Meanwhile, the war in the Middle East just got even more “interesting”.  It is being reported that a “U.S.-led coalition” just struck more than a dozen targets in Yemen…

A U.S.-led coalition has attacked sites in Yemen associated with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who have been firing dozens of drones and missiles into Red Sea shipping lanes.

The U.S. strikes, a significant escalation of the U.S. involvement in Middle East fighting amid Israel’s war in Gaza, followed the 27th Houthi attack since late November earlier Thursday. The attacks deepen U.S. involvement in the region. In recent weeks, the Pentagon has attacked Iranian-backed militants in Iraq and Syria who have targeted U.S. troops there with rocket attacks.

“Today, at my direction, U.S. military forces — together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands — successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways,” President Joe Biden said late Thursday.

In addition to being at war with Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria, now we are essentially at war with the Houthis.

We are being told that the targets included “radar systems, drone storage and launch sites, ballistic missile storage and launch sites, and cruise missile storage and launch sites”…

The strikes were from fighter jets and Tomahawk missiles. More than a dozen Houthi targets were fired upon by missiles fired from air, surface, and sub platforms and were chosen for their ability to degrade the Houthis’ continued attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, a US official told CNN.

They included radar systems, drone storage and launch sites, ballistic missile storage and launch sites, and cruise missile storage and launch sites.

The strikes are a sign of the growing international alarm over the threat to one of the world’s most critical waterways. For weeks, the US had sought to avoid direct strikes on Yemen because of the risk of escalation in a region already simmering with tension, but the ongoing Houthi attacks on international shipping compelled the coalition to act.

Needless to say, this war in the Middle East is still only in the very early stages.

It is going to get so much worse.

The war in Ukraine is going to get a lot worse too, and in recent weeks Russian forces have been steadily gaining ground.

I feel so bad for those that have been forcibly conscripted to fight on the front lines.  The Russians are constantly pummeling the front lines with all sorts of weaponry, and that includes massive glide bombs that possess enormous destructive power…

Ukrainian Army frontline personnel speaking to the New York Times have widely reported devastating damage from a new wave of Russian air strikes using glide bombs. Personnel told the American paper that while long having suffered from near constant artillery attacks, since the spring they had endured “the additional devastating power” of these glide bombs. They stressed that these bombs were obliterating their underground bunkers and carried up to 500kg of explosives each. One serviceman compared the impact of Russian glide bomb strikes to “hell’s gates,” stressing that the Russian Air Force “would send them two by two by two, eight in an hour… It sounds like a jet coming down on you.” The Russian Defence Ministry has reported the integration of gliding and correction modules onto FAB-500 500kg bombs against Ukrainian positions, with these having a range of approximately 70km depending on the altitude from which they are released. Such guided bombs can lay down fire at a small fraction of the cost of cruise or ballistic missiles, but still cost significantly more than unguided bombs.

Can you imagine sitting in a muddy trench hour after hour as tremendous explosions go off all around you?

The next round probably won’t have your number on it, but it might. Hundreds of thousands have already died, and many of them never even receive a proper burial.

As the Ukrainians lose ground, they will become increasingly desperate.

Some Ukrainian leaders have suggested using U.S.-supplied weapons to strike missile launch sites inside Russia, and Dmitry Medvedev is warning that such a move could provoke a nuclear response…

A senior ally of President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday that any Ukrainian attacks on missile launch sites inside Russia with arms supplied by the United States and its allies would risk a nuclear response from Moscow.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said that some Ukrainian military commanders were considering hitting missile launch sites inside Russia with Western-supplied long-range missiles.

This war should have been ended a long time ago.

At some point someone is going to push things too far, and then there will be no going back.

In my new book I have a chapter entitled “The 3 Wars Of The Apocalypse”, and two of them have already begun.

A lot of people out there still have faith that our leaders know exactly what they are doing and that they will be able to keep World War III from erupting.

Unfortunately, the truth is that World War III is already here, and soon global events will spiral completely out of control.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

The Houthis have launched at least 27 drone and missile attacks against commercial vessels transiting near the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the U.S. military said Thursday, operations the group says come in opposition to Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza. U.S. and U.K. military assets, with assistance from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands, struck “a number of targets” in Yemen early morning Friday Sana’a time, the White House said, and is the first time the U.S. has conducted deliberate strikes against targets linked to the Houthis since the group began attacking international shipping in late 2023.

“These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea—including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history,” President Joe Biden said in the statement.

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was preparing earlier to authorize strikes on the Houthis following a meeting with the National Security Council and briefings with Parliament, according to The Financial Times. The Pentagon had already drawn up potential targets, U.S. officials told the outlet.

The strikes involved fighter jets and ships and submarines firing Tomahawk missiles, CNN reported, citing U.S. and U.K. officials. The coalition targeted Houthis’ drone, ballistic and cruise missile, and coastal radar and air surveillance capabilities, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

“If necessary, we will take follow-on actions to protect U.S. forces,” Austin said.

Houthi forces had bunkered down forces and took steps to conceal sensitive assets in anticipation of strikes, U.S. officials said, The Wall Street Journal reported. Earlier on Thursday, Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi threatened to retaliate if struck by the U.S., the BBC reported.

“Any American attack will not remain without a response. The response will be greater than the attack that was carried out with twenty drones and a number of missiles,” he said in a televised address, referring to a Wednesday attack local time that was the largest since the group began targeting commercial ships in October.

The U.K. operates a destroyer in the Red Sea and is participating in a U.S.-led coalition, Operation Prosperity Guardian, which is aimed at deterring strikes and reassuring international shipping of the vessels’ safety.

The Pentagon previously declined to comment on rumored plans of strikes on the Houthis earlier Thursday.

: Sailors from guided-missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG 87) participate in a vertical replenishment with @TheCVN69 while supporting Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea, Jan. 8. Led by @CMF_Bahrain's CTF 153, #OPG has more than 20 countries taking part. pic.twitter.com/m9AMaLsoWF

— U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet (@US5thFleet) January 11, 2024

After Wednesday’s missile and drone barrage, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) reiterated a Jan. 3 warning from the U.S. and partners against the Houthis launching further attacks. Experts said the repeated threat signaled the Pentagon was rapidly losing patience with the Houthis’ insistence on continued attacks.

“I think that statement from multiple nations when it comes to the fact that there will be consequences – should the attacks not stop – speaks for itself. And I’ll just leave it at that,” Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a press briefing Thursday afternoon.

Major shipping companies continue to avoid Red Sea transit routes. The Houthis over the weekend appeared to target one of the U.S. guided-missile destroyers operating in the region as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian.

U.S. military assets in the Red Sea include 130 aircraft and the warships assigned to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, carrying about 4,000 sailors and Marines, White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby said at a Jan. 3 press briefing.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].