US and UK launch missile strikes against more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen

American and British fighter jets hit about 18 sites across multiple locations in Yemen

The US and Britain have struck more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen in response to a recent surge in attacks by the Iran-backed militia group on ships in the Red Sea.

American and British fighter jets hit about 18 sites across multiple locations, targeting missiles, launchers, rockets, drones and unmanned surface and underwater vehicles, according to US officials.

This is the fourth time that the US and British militaries have conducted a combined operation against the Houthis since 12 January.

But the US has also been carrying out almost daily strikes to take out Houthi targets, including incoming missiles and drones aimed at ships, as well as weapons that were prepared to launch.

The US fighter jets launched from the USS Dwight D Eisenhower aircraft carrier, which is currently in the Red Sea.

The US and Britain have struck up to 18 Houthi targets across Yemen (Getty)

President Joe Biden and other senior leaders have repeatedly warned that the US will not tolerate the Houthi attacks against commercial shipping.

The Houthi has launched at least 57 attacks on commercial and military ships in the the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since 19 November, and the pace has picked up in recent days.

“We’ve certainly seen in the past 48, 72 hours an increase in attacks from the Houthis,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said in a briefing on Thursday. And she acknowledged that the Houthis have not been deterred.

“We never said we’ve wiped off the map all of their capabilities,” she told reporters. “We know that the Houthis maintain a large arsenal. They are very capable. They have sophisticated weapons, and that’s because they continue to get them from Iran.”

There have been at least 32 US strikes in Yemen over the past month and a half. A few were conducted with allied involvement.

The Houthi has launched at least 57 attacks on commercial and military ships in the the Red Sea since 19 November (AP)

Earlier on Saturday, the destroyer USS Mason downed an anti-ship ballistic missile launched from Houthi-held areas in Yemen towards the Gulf of Aden, US Central Command said, adding that the missile was probably targeting MV Torm Thor, a US-flagged, owned, and operated chemical and oil tanker.

The US attacks on the Houthis have targeted more than 120 launchers, more than 10 surface-to-air-missiles, 40 storage and support building, 15 drone storage buildings, more than 20 unmanned air, surface and underwater vehicles, several underground storage areas and a few other facilities.

The rebels’ supreme leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, announced this past week an “escalation in sea operations” conducted by his forces as part of what they describe as a pressure campaign to end Israel’s war on Hamas.

But while the group says the attacks are aimed at stopping that war, the Houthis’ targets have grown more random, endangering a vital waterway for cargo and energy shipments travelling from Asia and the Middle East onwards to Europe.