United States Central Command
Defense forcewww.centcom.mil
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Sep 17, 2026
Aya BatrawyCORRESPONDENT
And now Vice President Vance says the US is talking with the Houthis.
Aya BatrawyCORRESPONDENT
An official in Saudi Arabia who spoke anonymously in order to discuss security matters confirmed to NPR that there was a meeting over the weekend between the US and the Houthis in Oman, and the official says that CENTCOM Chief Brad Cooper briefed Saudi crown prince on Monday about that meeting and said that the Houthis said they would not attack US or Israeli vessels in the Red Sea, that those attacks are focused only on Saudi oil tankers and carriers.
Aya BatrawyCORRESPONDENT
And that official told NPR that even after that meeting with the Houthis, Michelle, the US is helping the Saudis with planning and sharing intel on Houthi forces and weapons depots.
Michel MartinHOST
That is NPR correspondent in Dubai, Aya Batrawy.
Shawn RyanHOST
If a foreign service can simply buy that from an ad broker, has the concept of OPSEC for operators and their families already collapsed? And does anyone in government have a serious answer for it?"
Byron TauGUEST
That's a great question, and I think even in this current conflict in Iran, we've seen reports out of CENTCOM that, um, avi- the Iranians may have indeed targeted American soldiers using commercially available data.
Byron TauGUEST
Um, this is a really, really hard problem to solve.
Byron TauGUEST
There are some solutions.
Byron TauGUEST
And so yeah, this, you know, I've, I've focused in this book primarily on what our government does with this data, but this data is out there and it's available for sale, and our adversaries can and do buy it.
Byron TauGUEST
Um, you know, there, there have been, um, uh, there have been reports of other foreign governments getting this information, particularly Israeli companies and, you know, Israel's an ally of the United States, but it would not be at all difficult for China, Russia, Iran to obtain the exact same data that we're talking about here.
Byron TauGUEST
And CENTCOM seems to believe that it's at least credible that it was used to target Americans.
Shawn RyanHOST
Wow.
Jonathan HackettGUEST
Same thing with Qatar.
Jonathan HackettGUEST
That's where Air Force's Central Command is at, so it's, like, the equivalent of the Navy for Central Command.
Jonathan HackettGUEST
Both of those are now, like, inoperable essentially.
Dave ParkeHOST
Uh, like the, the Qatar one too, I mean, I guess the, at the time when we were really using these bases, Iran wasn't the, the primary, you know, threat.
Ben MeiselasHOST
We've been talking about all those Houthi strikes on the Saudi refineries and oil storage facilities, whether it's in Abqaiq on the east, whether it's Yanbu on the west, the East-West pipeline throughout Saudi Arabia damaged.
Ben MeiselasHOST
[laughs] Saudi Arabia's like, "We're gonna get it back up and running pretty soon." All the satellite footage though shows that none of the new pipes are being reconnected, but Saudi Arabia is just saying, "Here's what we are doing." It's just fascinating to me as well because after Saudi Arabia, CENTCOM Commander Brad Cooper and Netanyahu's Mossad all met earlier this week.
Ben MeiselasHOST
I guess Saudi Arabia's plan was to claim that the Houthis were trying to strike Mecca.
Ben MeiselasHOST
But then they released photos of Medina.
Mike BakerHOST
This marks yet another direct confrontation between American and Iranian forces in one of the most heavily contested waterways in the world.
Mike BakerHOST
According to U.S. Central Command, the two small boats approached an American unmanned surface vessel on Monday and attempted to take possession of it.
Mike BakerHOST
American forces intervened, and the Iranian boats were destroyed.
Mike BakerHOST
Axios, citing U.S. officials, reports that an American drone fired two missiles at the boats, killing most of those aboard.
Jeremy KonyndykHOST
We haven't really gotten into the tensions between the regional and the federal government here, and we don't have time, but they're not copacetic, we'll just say that much.
Jeremy KonyndykHOST
So the US has signed, USCENTCOM, Central Command, has signed a deal with the regional government of Garowe for military cooperation.
Jeremy KonyndykHOST
They have established and are expanding a base at Bosaso, which is a port on the Gulf of Aden.
Jeremy KonyndykHOST
It's very strategic, right across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia.
Heather du Plessis-AllanHOST
The Houthis claim that they've shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet and have posted a video of the wreckage.
Heather du Plessis-AllanHOST
US Central Command says it's working very closely with the Saudis.
D'Arcy WaldegraveGUEST
We have advisors, uh, on the ground who are sharing information robustly with our Saudi partners.
D'Arcy WaldegraveGUEST
They're also, uh, sitting shoulder to shoulder and assisting them in planning.
speaker_0HOST
Turning to the military and naval picture, United States Central Command broke nearly a week of public silence on Tuesday, and when it spoke, it did so with an admission rather than a press release.
speaker_0HOST
The command posted that Iranian small boats had recently attempted to seize an American unmanned surface vessel patrolling the Strait of Hormuz.
speaker_0HOST
and that they were unsuccessful after CENTCOM forcefully responded.
speaker_0HOST
What that response actually involved was reported not by the Pentagon but by Axios, which cited American officials saying a United States drone fired two missiles at two Iranian boats on Monday, killing most of those aboard, and that the military had not disclosed the strike at the time it happened.
speaker_0HOST
Iranian state media told a very different story.
Iona CraigGUEST
Yes, the Biden administration had been doing it, but on a very low level scale compared to what the Trump administration then launched in 2017. in March of last year.
Iona CraigGUEST
But what's come out in recent weeks has been the US Department of War and US CENTCOM has released its annual report on civilian harm in military operations.
Iona CraigGUEST
It's something that the US military is obliged to do under legislation.
Iona CraigGUEST
that they have to provide to Congress on an annual basis, something the UK does not have to do.
Iona CraigGUEST
And from the work that I did in tracking those flights last year, the RAF flights from Cyprus down into the Red Sea, it's now possible to ascertain that those RAF refueling flights were being carried out at the exact time of two of these strikes that CENCOM has admitted have killed at least 80 civilians in one single strike on Ras Issa port and another strike on a residential area in the capital, Sanaa.
Iona CraigGUEST
And I think the issue here is really is that the Ministry of Defence in the UK does not have any mechanism for either counting or monitoring civilian harm in British military action.
Iona CraigGUEST
Which kind of brings us back to the point about supporting Saudi Arabia is that the only reason we know about the civilian casualties that CENTCOM is now acknowledging is because they are forced to report these to Congress.
Iona CraigGUEST
But without Britain having any mechanism for itself, There is no kind of break, if you like, on them on when it comes to civilian harm incidents.
RichHOST
From Addie Davis at Long Island, New York.
speaker_2SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
United States Central Command, CENTCOM, pushed back against the Iranian claim that an oil tanker struck a mine in the Strait of Hormuz.
speaker_2SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
The command asserted that the Panama-flagged El Gaya was struck by an Iranian drone over the weekend, despite an Iranian missile strike already rendering the vessel inoperable last month.
SarahHOST
A tanker Iran had already disabled with a missile last month gets hit again while it's sitting off Oman? CENTCOM says drone.
SarahHOST
The IRGC, through Mare, says mine.
SarahHOST
Either way, Al-Gaia is a wrecked asset, and somebody's insurance desk is staring at a nightmare.
RichHOST
CENTCOM's account is specific.
RichHOST
It says the Panama-flagged El Gaya was hit by an Iranian drone and is now being towed by a regional partner.
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