The US and UK carried out strikes against 18 Houthi targets including underground weapons and missile storage facilities in Yemen on Saturday in the latest round of military action against the Iran-linked group that continues to attack shipping in the region.
The strikes were against Houthi targets across eight locations and also included air defence systems, radars, and a helicopter, officials said.
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said: “Four Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s, supported by two Voyager tankers, again participated in a deliberate coalition strike on Saturday 24 February against Houthi military facilities in Yemen which had been conducting missile and drone attacks on commercial shipping and coalition naval forces in the Bab al-Mandab, southern Red Sea, and Gulf of Aden. The RAF aircraft were allocated multiple targets located at two sites.
“Intelligence analysis had successfully identified several very long-range drones, used by the Houthis for both reconnaissance and attack missions, at a former surface-to-air missile battery site several miles north-east of Sana’a.
“Our aircraft used Paveway IV precision-guided bombs against the drones and their launchers, notwithstanding the Houthis’ use of the old missile battery revetments to try to protect the drones.”
The MoD added that “additional buildings” at previously targeted Bani in north-western Yemen “had subsequently been confirmed as also being involved in the drone and missile activities there and were therefore targeted during this latest strike”.
The US and UK, with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, conducted the “necessary and proportionate” precision strikes, the statement said, that are “intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities that the Houthis use to threaten global trade, naval vessels, and the lives of innocent mariners in one of the world’s most critical waterways”.
It added: “Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea, but we will once again reiterate our warning to Houthi leadership: we will not hesitate to continue to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in the face of continued threats.”
Houthi-run Al-Masirah television reported “a series of raids on the capital Sana’a,” while Agence France-Presse correspondents said they heard several loud bangs.
A Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, was defiant in a statement on social media in response to the strikes, vowing that the rebels would “confront the American-British escalation with more qualitative military operations against all hostile targets in the Red and Arab Seas”.
The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, wrote on X: “It is our duty to protect lives at sea and preserve freedom of navigation. That is why the Royal Air Force engaged in a fourth wave of precision strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen.
“We acted alongside our allies to further degrade Houthi drones and launchers used to mount their dangerous attacks. I thank the brave British personnel involved for their service.”
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The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said: “We will continue to make clear to the Houthis that they will bear the consequences if they do not stop their illegal attacks, which harm Middle Eastern economies, cause environmental damage and disrupt the delivery of humanitarian aid to Yemen and other countries.”
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said it received a report of an incident 70 nautical miles east of port of Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, and authorities were currently investigating.
In a televised speech, the rebel group’s military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said Houthis targeted MV Torm Thor, a US-flagged, owned and operated oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden.
The Iran-backed Houthis who control much of north-western Yemen have been attacking merchant vessels in the region since November.
They say their attacks are to show support for Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
With Agence France-Presse