The US and Britain struck 13 Houthi targets in several locations in Yemen in response to a recent surge in attacks by the Iran-backed militia group on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden over the Israel-Hamas war, three US officials said on Thursday.
The Houthi rebels said that the airstrikes killed at least 16 people and wounded 35.
US and British fighter jets and US ships hit a wide range of underground facilities, missile launchers, command and control sites, a Houthi vessel and other facilities, the US officials said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide early details of an ongoing military operation.
Also struck by the US were eight uncrewed aerial vehicles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen that were determined to be presenting a threat to US and coalition forces.
US F/A-18 jets launched from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, the officials said.
Other US warships in the region also participated, they added.
The Houthis’ Al Masirah satellite news station highlighted one of the strikes, which hit a radio building in Hodeida.
It aired images of one bloodied man being carried down stairs and others receiving treatment at a hospital.
Other strikes hit outside the rebel-held capital, Sana’a, near its airport and communication equipment in Taiz, the broadcaster said.
Little other information was released — likely signaling that Houthi military sites had been struck.
“We confirm this brutal aggression against Yemen as punishment for its position in support of Gaza, in support of Israel to continue its crimes of genocide against the wounded, besieged and steadfast Gaza Strip,” Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam wrote on X.
The strikes came a day after a US MQ-9 Reaper drone went down in Yemen, and the Houthis released footage that the group said showed the aircraft being targeted with a surface-to-air missile in a desert region of Yemen’s central Marib province.
It was the third such downing last month.
Also earlier this week, missile attacks twice damaged a Marshall Islands-flagged, Greek-owned ship in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, with a private security firm saying radio traffic suggested the vessel took on water after being struck.
The Houthis have claimed responsibility for the attack.
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