The Houthis have promised to retaliate.
Yemeni rebels said on Sunday they would respond to US and British strikes that targeted dozens of targets in Yemen, following Houthi attacks on ships.
Yahya Saree, the Houthis' military spokesperson, said Sunday that the new strikes "will not shake" their "support for the resistant Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and will not go unanswered and punished."
Without mentioning any victims, he reported 48 strikes “during the last hours” in six provinces, including thirteen on the capital Sanaa and its surroundings, and nine in the province of Hodeida.
After Saturday's strikes, another Houthi spokesman, Nasr al-Din Amer, said: "Either there is peace for us, Palestine and Gaza, or there is no peace and no security for you in our region.”
“We will respond to escalation with escalation,” he wrote on social media.
Read alsoAttacks in the Red Sea: facing the Houthi rebels, the Western strategy of “deterrence by punishment”
The Iran-backed Houthis began targeting maritime traffic in the Red Sea in November, saying they were targeting Israel-linked vessels "in solidarity" with Palestinians in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. Israel and Hamas.
American and British forces responded with raids against the rebels, who have since also designated American and British interests as legitimate targets.
“Further disrupt and degrade the capabilities of the Houthi militia”
Saturday's strikes targeted 36 rebel targets "in 13 locations in Yemen in response to continued Houthi attacks against international and commercial maritime traffic as well as warships transiting the Red Sea," their side said in a joint statement. with the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries supporting the operation.
The attack targeted “deeply buried arsenals, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems and radars of the Houthis,” the document added.
This is the third joint US and UK operation against the Houthis.
American forces also carried out air raids against the rebels on their own.
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US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US strikes "aim to further disrupt and degrade the capabilities of the Iranian-backed Houthi militia to carry out its reckless and destabilizing attacks."
“Coalition forces targeted 13 sites associated with the Houthis' deep-buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems and radars,” he said in a statement. .
Britain's MoD said its planes struck two stations used to direct reconnaissance and attack drones.
Early Sunday, the United States also announced it had carried out a new strike against a Houthi anti-ship missile that was “ready to be launched against ships in the Red Sea,” according to the U.S. Middle East Command (Centcom).
Centcom had already indicated on Saturday that it had carried out strikes targeting six Houthi anti-ship missiles.
The US military also destroyed eight drones on Friday off the coast of Yemen and four on the ground in order to “protect freedom of navigation” from Houthi attacks.
Tensions in the Middle East
Anger over Israel's devastating campaign in Gaza, which began after an unprecedented deadly Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7, continues to swell in the Middle East.
On January 28, a drone struck a base in Jordan, killing three American soldiers and injuring more than 40. The attack was attributed by Washington to pro-Iran groups.
The United States responded Friday with retaliatory strikes against elite Iranian forces and pro-Iranian armed groups in Iraq and Syria, but did not strike Iranian territory.
At the request of Russia, which has accused Washington of “sowing chaos” in the Middle East, the UN Security Council is due to meet urgently on Monday.
“We must send the clearest signal possible to Iran that what it is doing through its proxies is unacceptable,” said British Foreign Minister David Cameron in an interview with the Sunday Times.