The Iran-backed Houthis are beginning to retaliate following a Friday morning 60 strikes against 16 sites in Yemen, including the port city of Hodeida, where several missile and drone warehouses are located, and the capital Sanaa’s airport.

The assault will “not go unanswered or unpunished,” a Houthi military spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, boasts. “We have to wait and see how the Houthis respond,” the Pentagon spokesman, Major General Patrick Ryder, says, adding,“we hope the Houthis got the message.”

A Houthi missile “mistakenly” hit a ship carrying Russian oil Friday evening, Reuters reports. Russia and Communist China joined Iran in condemning the attack on the Houthis. America and Britain are “turning the Red Sea into a sea of blood,” President Erdogan of Turkey, a NATO ally, said.

London and Washington officials indicate that they are prepared to attack again if the Houthi aggression continues. For weeks, attacks on international vessels have almost completely shut down shipping in the Red Sea, where international ships have been attacked 28 times since November 18. Some 15 percent of world commerce travels in that maritime artery, connecting Asia, Africa, the Mideast, and Europe.

“We will not hesitate to defend lives and protect the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways,” the White House said in a statement. It also made clear that “our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea.”

De-escalation has been a mantra of the Biden administration ever since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, even as assaults against international shipping kept growing. As Israel’s Gaza experience shows, obliterating an entrenched terror organization is a long, painstaking slug.

A sustained effort might be required to degrade seriously the Houthi military capabilities. Warehouses and manufacturing arms facilities in Yemen might be targeted over and over before they are incapacitated. Strikes may also need to target Iran, which finances, arms, and trains the Houthis and coordinates the Red Sea assaults.

“You’re not going to deter these attacks unless the Islamic Republic feels some pain,” the policy director for United Against Nuclear Iran, Jason Brodsky, tells the Sun. Bombing targets, he adds, could include bases of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its Quds force on Iranian soil, where Houthis train.

Yet, following the attack in Yemen, Washington officials were quick to shut down any talk of action against the Houthis’ benefactor, which also backs Hezbollah, Hamas, and anti-American Shiite groups in Syria and Iraq. “We’re not looking for conflict with Iran,” the national security council spokesman, John Kirby, tells MSNBC.

Prior to the strikes Friday in Yemen, Washington and some of its allies telegraphed their intentions. On Thursday evening the British press cited unidentified officials as saying an attack was coming. That might have allow Yemeni operatives to remove assets from sensitive targets. “Do they think the Houthis and the IRGC don’t read twitter?” Mr. Brodsky asks.

An Iranian vessel that has been lurking near Bab el Mandeb for weeks left the area days ago, perhaps sensing what was coming after America successfully passed midweek a United Nations Security Council resolution on the Houthis aggression. The vessel was identified as a tanker, but is widely believed to be an Iranian spy ship directing the Houthi attacks.

Meanwhile, Friday’s limited strike was panned by some on Capitol Hill. “This is an unacceptable violation of the Constitution,” the chairwoman of the Progressive Caucus, Representative Pramila Jayapal, wrote on social media.

Other Democratic House members, including Rashida Tlaib, Ro Khanna, Corey Bush, and Ilhan Omar, posted similar messages, while a bipartisan group of legislators applauded the action. Several Republicans urged deeper attacks, including strikes against Iran.

In the Mideast, Israelis were relieved that the allies finally acted against the Houthis. Yet they geared for a possible renewal of Yemeni long-range missile and drone attacks on Eilat. Gulf countries seem less supportive. Bahrain is the only Arab country in the alliance that supports America and Britain. The supportive group includes Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Free Korea — but, pointedly, not France.

Saudi Arabia has fought the Houthis for eight years after the group — whose ubiquitous slogan is “death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, long live Islam” — invaded the capital Sanaa. Early in his presidency Mr. Biden pressured the Saudis to end the war. Riyadh then entered peace talks, and is now urging no military action that could renew Houthi bombing of Saudi oil facilities.

Early in his presidency Mr. Biden removed the Houthis from the terrorist list, after President Trump listed them weeks before. On Friday the State Department imposed sanctions on two companies involved in shipment of Iranian commodities to the Houthis. As yet, there are no plans to re-list the Houthis formally, even though on Friday Mr. Biden acknowledged they are a terrorist group.