WASHINGTON, United States: The United States and Britain struck at least 30 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in a second wave of strikes aimed at further disabling the Iran-backed groups, which have relentlessly attacked American and international interests in the wake of the war between Hamas and Israel, US officials said.
The latest strikes against the Houthis were launched by fighter jets and ships.
The attacks follow an airstrike in Iraq and Syria on Friday that targeted other Iranian-backed militias and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in retaliation for a drone strike that killed three American soldiers in Jordan last weekend.
The Houthi targets were in 10 different locations and were hit by US F/A-18 fighter jets from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and US warships firing Tomahawk missiles from the Red Sea, US officials said.
According to officials, the USS Gravely and USS Carney, both Navy destroyers, fired the missiles.
As Houthi rebels in Yemen continue to disrupt global shipping in the Red Sea, the US is striking back.
Saturday’s strikes were the third time the US and Britain have carried out a major joint operation targeting Houthi weapons launchers, radar stations and drones. But the Houthis have made it clear they have no intention of scaling back their offensive.
On Friday, the US destroyer Laboon and an Eisenhower F/A-18 shot down seven drones fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Red Sea, the destroyer Carney shot down a drone fired in the Gulf of Aden, and US forces disabled four other drones that were ready for launch.
Hours before the latest joint operation, the US carried out another self-defense attack on a site in Yemen, destroying six anti-ship cruise missiles, as it has repeatedly done when it detects a missile or drone ready for launch.
