But the Houthis have continued their attacks on shipping – just one part of a growing crisis in the Middle East linked to the Israel-Gaza war, which has raised fears of a broader war directly involving Iran.
Asian exporters face more Red Sea risks after US-led attacks on Houthis
Asian exporters face more Red Sea risks after US-led attacks on Houthis
The latest US-UK strikes were against “eight Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the Houthis’ continued attacks against international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea”, they said in a joint statement with other countries that supported the military action.
“These precision strikes are intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities that the Houthis use to threaten global trade and the lives of innocent mariners,” the statement said.
The US Central Command said in a separate statement that the targets of the strikes “included missile systems and launchers, air defence systems, radars and deeply buried weapons storage facilities”.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the Houthis had carried out more than 12 attacks on shipping since the first wave of joint strikes on January 11.
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US-led coalition strikes Iran-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen
US-led coalition strikes Iran-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen
“What we have done again is send the clearest possible message that we will continue to degrade their ability to carry out these attacks … [and] that we back our words and our warnings with action,” he said in a statement.
The Houthis remained defiant, with military spokesman Yahya Saree promising a response.
“These attacks will not go unanswered and unpunished,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, listing 18 strikes in Sanaa, Hodeida, Taez and Al-Bayda provinces.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said he told Cameron during the World Economic Forum in Davos last week that the attacks were a “strategic mistake”.
“We sent a serious message and warning to the Americans,” he said during a trip to New York, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
Malaysians to pay more for gourmet food as Red Sea crisis raises inflation risk
Malaysians to pay more for gourmet food as Red Sea crisis raises inflation risk
“The action that the United States and the United Kingdom carried out jointly … is a threat to peace and security in the region. It is the intensification of the scope of the war.”
A senior US military official said the strikes were carried out using a combination of precision-guided munitions from US and British aircraft, and Tomahawk cruise missiles.
There were no concerns about civilian casualties at the sites that were hit, while Houthi losses were unknown, the official told journalists.
“The targeting was very specific and … very deliberate to go after the capability that they are using to attack maritime vessels in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab and Gulf of Aden,” the official added.
Sunak defends decision for UK to join US in ‘limited’ strikes on Yemen’s Houthis
Sunak defends decision for UK to join US in ‘limited’ strikes on Yemen’s Houthis
Saree, the Houthis’ military spokesman, did not mention any casualties in his post on X.
On Monday, hours before the joint operation, Houthis claimed they fired on a US military cargo ship off the coast of Yemen. The claim was denied by a US defence official.
The Yemeni rebels began striking Red Sea shipping in November, saying they were hitting Israeli-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza, which has been ravaged by Israel’s conflict against Hamas.
The Houthis have since declared US and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.
In addition to military action, Washington is seeking to put diplomatic and financial pressure on the Houthis, redesignating them as a “terrorist” organisation last week after dropping that label soon after President Joe Biden took office.
The rebels reiterated on Monday that they will “respond to any attack” on Yemen and continue to “prevent Israeli ships” from passing through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea until the end of the war in Gaza.
The latest round of the Israel-Gaza conflict began after an unprecedented October attack by the Palestinian militant group that resulted in the deaths of about 1,140 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.
Israel responded with a relentless air and ground offensive that has killed at least 25,490 people, around 70 per cent of them women, children and adolescents, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Those deaths have sparked widespread anger across the region and stoked violence involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria as well as Yemen.
