US, Britain launch strikes on dozens of Houthi targets

The joint air raids in Yemen came a day after a separate wave of unilateral American strikes against Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria.

RAF Typhoon FRG4s being prepared to conduct further strikes against targets in Yemen. Picture: AFP

The US and Britain have struck dozens of targets in Yemen in ­response to repeated attacks on shipping by Iran-backed Houthi rebels that have disrupted global trade and put lives at risk.

The joint air raids in Yemen on Sunday came a day after a separate wave of unilateral American strikes against Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria that were carried out in response to the killing of three US soldiers in Jordan last weekend.

It is the third time that British and American forces have jointly targeted the Houthis and the US has also carried out a series of air raids against them on its own, but the rebels’ attacks have persisted.

The latest strikes hit “36 Houthi targets across 13 locations in Yemen in response to the Houthis’ continued attacks against international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea,” the US, Britain, Australia and other countries that provided support for the operation said.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes “are intended to further disrupt and degrade the capabilities of the Iranian-backed Houthi militia to conduct their reckless and destabilising attacks”.

“Coalition forces targeted 13 ­locations associated with the Houthis’ deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defence systems, and radars,” he said.

Neither Mr Austin nor the joint statement identified the specific places that were hit, but the Houthis’ al-Massirah television said Sanaa and other locations were targeted.

Britain’s defence ministry said Royal Air Force Typhoon warplanes struck targets including two ground control stations used to operate both attack and reconnaissance drones.

US forces earlier on Saturday separately carried out strikes against six Houthi anti-ship missiles that were “prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea”, the Central Command said.

Armed Houthi supporters take to the streets of Sanaa. Picture: AFP

The military command also said on Saturday that US forces shot down eight drones in and near Yemen the day before and ­destroyed four more before they could be launched.

The Houthis began targeting Red Sea shipping in November, saying they were hitting Israel-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza, which has been ravaged by the Israel-Hamas war.

US and UK forces responded with strikes against the Houthis, who have since declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.

Houthi spokesman Nasr al-Din Amer said following the Saturday strikes that “either there is peace for us, Palestine and Gaza, or there is no peace and no safety for you in our region”. “We will meet the escalation with escalation,” he wrote on social media.

Anger over Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza – which began after an unprecedented Hamas ­attack on October 7 – has grown across the Middle East, stoking ­violence involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Last weekend, a drone slammed into a base in Jordan, killing the three US soldiers and wounding more than 40 – an attack Washington blamed on Iran-backed forces. US and allied troops have been attacked more than 165 times in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since mid-October, but the soldiers killed last weekend were the first to die from hostile fire in the Middle East during that period.

The US responded on Saturday with strikes against dozens of targets at seven Tehran-linked facilities in Iraq and Syria, but did not hit Iranian territory. Both the Iraqi and Syrian governments condemned the strikes, while Tehran said they would “have no result other than intensifying tension and instability”.

Diplomatic sources, meanwhile, said the UN Security Council would convene on Monday night, after Russia called for a meeting “over the threat to peace and safety created by US strikes on Syria and Iraq”. But British Foreign Secretary David Cameron has said Tehran was ultimately ­responsible for the violence, telling The Sunday Times that “we need to send the clearest possible signal to Iran that what they’re doing through their proxies is unacceptable.” “You created them, you backed them, you financed them, you provided them with weapons, and you will ultimately be held ­accountable for what they do,” Lord Cameron said.

AFP