U.S. and British forces struck 18 Houthi targets, including underground weapons and missile storage facilities, officials said.
The United States and Britain have bombed more than a dozen Houthi strongholds in Yemen, officials said, as Yemeni rebels step up attacks on ships in the Red Sea to protest Israel’s war on Gaza.
The United States and Britain issued a joint statement on Saturday saying the military operation targeted 18 Houthi strongholds in eight locations in Yemen and included attacks on underground weapons and missile storage facilities, air defense systems, radars and helicopters. did.
The operation marks the fourth joint attack by U.S. and British forces against the Houthis since January 12.
Separate from the joint action, the United States conducts near-daily missile, rocket, and drone strikes against commercial ships and other naval vessels to eliminate Houthi targets.
But the attacks have not stopped so far Houthi attackdisrupted global trade and raised shipping costs.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the strikes were aimed at “further disrupting and diminishing the capabilities of the Iranian-backed Houthi militia.”
“We urge the Houthis to stop their illegal attacks that are damaging Middle Eastern economies, causing environmental damage, and disrupting the delivery of humanitarian aid to Yemen and other countries, or they will face the consequences. We will continue to make clear what will happen.” .
The attack was supported by Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand.
The Houthis responded defiantly.
Yahya Salih, a spokesman for the group, vowed that the rebels would “counter US and UK escalation with higher quality military operations against all hostile targets in the Red Sea and Arab Sea.”
He added that the Houthis “will remain steadfast in their religious, moral and humanitarian obligations to the Palestinian people and their military operations will not stop unless the invasion ends and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted.”
The Houthis have carried out at least 57 attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November 19, according to an Associated Press tally.
And the pace of attacks has accelerated in recent days.
A Houthi spokesman claimed on Saturday that the US-flagged and operated chemical oil tanker MV Toum Tor had been attacked, saying that the Houthis had used “a large number of suitable naval missiles” to attack the ship. He said it was targeted.
U.S. Central Command confirmed the attack and said its forces shot down an anti-ship ballistic missile fired from Yemen’s Houthi-controlled area into the Gulf of Aden, adding that the missile may have targeted the MV Torum Toul. He added that it was expensive.
There was no damage to the tanker and no one was injured.
Britain’s maritime security agency UKMTO also reported another attack on an unspecified vessel near the port of Djibouti on Saturday night, saying: “There was an explosion in the immediate vicinity of the vessel, but no damage to the vessel was reported. There were no injuries,” he said. crew”.
“The ship is on its way to its next port of call,” the bulletin added.
Meanwhile, the Houthis last week claimed responsibility for attacks on a British-owned cargo ship and a drone attack on a US destroyer, and said they were also targeting the Israeli port and resort city of Eilat with ballistic missiles and drones.
No ships were sunk and no crew members were killed during the Houthi operation.
However, there are concerns about the fate of the British-flagged cargo ship Rubimar, whose crew was evacuated after it was hit on February 18. The US military said the Rubimar was carrying more than 41,000 tons of fertilizer at the time of the collision, which could spill into the Red Sea and cause an environmental disaster.
The turmoil caused by Israel’s war in Gaza has spread to other parts of the Middle East.
Lebanon’s Iranian-backed group Hezbollah engaged in a gunfight with Israel along the Israel-Lebanon border, and pro-Iranian Iraqi militias attacked bases housing U.S. troops.
