SANAA, Feb 4: Yemens Huthis said Sunday US and British air strikes "will not deter us" and vowed a response after dozens of targets were hit in retaliation for the Iran-backed rebels repeated Red Sea attacks.
The joint air raids in Yemen late Saturday, denounced by Iran, followed a separate wave of unilateral American strikes against Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria in response to a drone attack that killed three US soldiers in Jordan.
It was the third time that British and American forces have jointly targeted the Huthis, whose attacks in solidarity with Palestinians in war-battered Gaza have disrupted global trade.
The United States has also carried out a series of air raids against the Yemeni rebels on its own, but their attacks on the vital Red Sea trade route have persisted.
Saturdays strikes hit "36 Huthi targets across 13 locations", the United States, Britain and other countries that provided support for the operation said in a statement.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes "are intended to further disrupt and degrade the capabilities of the Iranian-backed Huthi militia to conduct their reckless and destabilising attacks".
Neither Austin nor the joint statement identified the specific places that were hit, but Huthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the capital Sanaa and other rebel-held areas were targeted.
Saree reported a total of 48 air strikes, and said on social media platform X that "these attacks will not deter us from our... stance in support of the steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip," where the Israel-Hamas war has raged since early October.
The latest strikes "will not pass without response and punishment", Saree said.
Britains defence ministry said Royal Air Force Typhoon warplanes struck two ground control stations used to operate attack and reconnaissance drones.
Austin said targets included "locations associated with the Huthis deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defence systems, and radars".
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
In rebel-held Sanaa, 35-year-old resident Hamed Ghanem said his family was "scared when we heard the strikes".
"We had hope that the war would end, and now God knows how long" it might go on for, the father of five told AFP.
Analysts have said rising tensions could derail efforts to broker a ceasefire between the Huthis and a Saudi-backed military coalition which mobilised to topple them in 2015.
A UN-brokered truce in April 2022 brought a sharp reduction in hostilities, and while it had long expired, Yemens war has since largely remained on hold.
The Huthis began targeting Red Sea shipping in November, saying they were hitting Israel-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza, ruled by another Iran-backed armed group, Hamas.
US and UK forces responded with strikes against the Huthis, who have since declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.
Separately, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces carried out a strike against a Huthi anti-ship missile that "prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea" early Sunday.
CENTCOM had earlier launched strikes against six other Huthi anti-ship missiles, and on Friday the US military said its forces had shot down eight drones in and near Yemen.
Anger over Israels devastating campaign in Gaza -- which began after an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 -- has grown across the Middle East, stoking violence involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
On January 28, a drone slammed into a base in Jordan, killing three US soldiers and wounding more than 40 -- an attack Washington blamed on Tehran-aligned forces. —AFP
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