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The United States and Britain carried out strikes on 36 targets in Yemen on Saturday, the second day of U.S. operations against Iran-linked groups following an attack on U.S. forces last weekend that killed three soldiers.
The Pentagon said the strikes targeted underground weapons storage facilities, missile launchers, systems and launchers and other capabilities used by the Houthis to attack navigation in the Red Sea.
It said the strikes targeted 13 sites across the country.
The strikes are the latest sign of widespread conflict in the Middle East since the outbreak of war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas after the October 7 operation.
U.S. Defense Secretary Austin Lloyd said: “This collective action sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear further repercussions if they do not stop their unlawful attacks on international shipping and naval vessels.”
The strikes in Yemen coincide with a U.S. military retaliatory campaign after three U.S. soldiers were killed in a drone attack by Iran-backed militants on a site in Syria.
On Friday, the United States carried out the first wave of retaliation, striking in Iraq and Syria more than 85 targets linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the factions it supports, killing nearly 40 people.
While Washington accuses Iran-backed militias of attacking U.S. forces at bases in Iraq and Syria, Yemen’s Iran-linked Houthis regularly target commercial ships and warships in the Red Sea.
The Houthis, who control Yemen’s most populous areas, say their attacks are in solidarity with the Palestinians as Israel launches an offensive on the Gaza Strip. But the United States and its allies describe the attacks as indiscriminate and a threat to global trade.
In the face of escalating violence in the Red Sea, major shipping lanes have largely abandoned the vital trade route and turned to longer routes around Africa.
This has increased costs, heightened concerns about global inflation, while depriving Egypt of significant revenue from shipping companies sailing the Suez Canal to and from the Red Sea.
The United States has launched more than a dozen strikes against Houthi targets in the past few weeks, but has failed to stop the group’s attacks.
Just hours before the latest wave of strikes from sea and air, the U.S. military’s Central Command released statements detailing other, more limited strikes in the past day, which included hitting six cruise missiles the Houthis were preparing to launch against ships in the Red Sea.
British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said: “This is not an escalation.” “We have already succeeded in targeting launch pads and storage sites involved in Houthi attacks, and I am confident that our recent strikes have further undermined the capabilities of the Houthis,” he said.
The United States said that Sunday’s attacks were supported by Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand. The US Central Command said that in addition to missile capabilities, the strikes targeted storage sites, drone operations, radars and helicopters.
Despite the strikes against groups linked to Iran, the US Defense Department Pentagon said it did not want war with Iran and did not think Tehran wanted war either. Republicans are stepping up pressure on Democratic President Joe Biden to strike Iran directly.
It was not clear how Tehran would respond to the strikes that did not target Iran directly but weakened the groups it supported.
The spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Nasser Kanani, said in a statement that the attacks in Iraq and Syria represent “another adventure and strategic mistake committed by the US government and the result of which is nothing but increased tension and instability in the region.”
Iraq summoned the US charge d’affaires in Baghdad to lodge a formal protest after the strikes that hit the country.
The Yemeni news agency (Saba) run by the Houthis said that the United States and Britain launched 14 attacks on the provinces of Taiz and Hodeidah on Saturday.
A security source told the news agency that 11 attacks targeted the Al-Barh area in the Mqabna district and areas in the Hayfan district. Three other attacks targeted Mount Al-Jad’a in the Al-Luhaya district and the Al-Salif district in Hodeidah province.
Experts say Biden’s emerging strategy on Yemen aims to weaken the Houthi militants, but does not go as far as trying to defeat the group or address Iran directly, the main sponsor of the Houthis.
The strategy combines military strikes and limited sanctions, and appears to aim to punish the Houthis while limiting the risk of a wider conflict in the Middle East.
Reuters