US and UK bomb 36 targets in Yemen

The US and UK have carried out a series of combined air- and sea-launched strikes against at least 36 targets at 13 locations across Yemen, the US Central Command announced on Saturday.

The joint operation was carried out by Tomahawk missiles launched from US Navy ships, and F/A-18 fighter-bombers launched from the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower. The US Central Command said the raid targeted “multiple underground storage facilities, command and control, missile systems, UAV storage and operations sites, radars, and helicopters.”

“These strikes are intended to degrade Houthi capabilities used to continue their reckless and unlawful attacks on US and UK ships as well as international commercial shipping,” CENTCOM said.

Earlier on Saturday, the US struck six locations in Yemen, stating they contained Houthi cruise missiles set to be launched at ships in the Red Sea, US Central Command reported on X (formerly Twitter).

In response, the Houthis are set to “meet escalation with escalation,” according to a senior political official and spokesman Mohammed al-Bukhaiti. “Our military operations against the Zionist entity will continue until the aggression against Gaza stops, no matter what sacrifices it costs us,” he wrote on X.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been attacking shipping in the region in solidarity with Palestinians since the breakout of the Israel-Hamas conflict in October last year. Initially targeting only Israeli-affiliated vessels, the Houthis later began attacking the US and UK-owned ships, after the coalition launched strikes against Yemen.

The latest assault on Saturday came following a series of airstrikes on Iraq and Syria this Friday. Washington claimed it targeted members of the Islamic Resistance movement and other “Iranian-backed” militias, in response to the drone strike that killed three US soldiers at a military facility in Jordan last weekend.