The US and UK launched strikes on Saturday against Houthi targets used to attack shipping and navy vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
US Central Command said forces from the two countries conducted the strikes against 36 targets at 13 locations in parts of Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed militant group.
They had support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand in the strikes.
The move came two days after Bahrain-based Central Command, which coordinates US armed forces in the region, said Houthi missiles targeted the CMA CGM-operated 8,600-teu container ship Koi (built 2011), which is owned by a UK-registered company tied to US banking giant JP Morgan.
“These multilateral coalition strikes focused on targets in Houthi-controlled Yemen used to attack international merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region,” Central Command said on X, formerly Twitter.
The targets included underground storage facilities, command and control sites, missile systems, drone storage and operations sites, radar sites 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 in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden,” the US military said.
“These strikes are separate and distinct from the multinational freedom of navigation actions performed under Operation Prosperity Guardian.”
The action came just hours after US forces targeted cruise missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen that Central Command said represented an imminent threat to navy ships and commercial vessels.
And they came a day after the US bombed 95 targets in Iraq and Syria tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a response by the Biden administration to a deadly attack on American troops in Jordan.
