Renewed bombing after brazen Red Sea attacks

US and British forces launched a new wave of strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen yesterday, US officials said, the latest effort to stop what have become near-daily attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and nearby waterways.

The strikes, carried out shortly before midnight in Yemen, mark the largest military action against the Houthis in weeks, though US forces have launched smaller attacks against various targets, such as Houthi missiles prepared to be launched. The new wave, US officials said, was meant to target infrastructure and weapons that the Houthis have used to carry out attacks.

Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the United States and Britain acted with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand. The strikes were spread across eight locations, hitting underground weapons-storage facilities, missile-storage facilities, one-way attack drones, air defences, radar and a helicopter to “further disrupt and degrade” the Houthis from carrying out attacks at sea, he said.

The participating nations said in a joint statement that the strikes hit 18 Houthi targets.

“Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea, but we will once again reiterate our warning to Houthi leadership: we will not hesitate to continue to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in the face of continued threats,” the joint statement said.

The strikes were carried out in part by F/A-18 fighter jets from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D Eisenhower.

The military action came at the end of a week in which the Houthis carried out several brazen attacks, including one on February 18 that damaged the MV Rubymar, a British-owned vessel that was carrying 41,000 tons of fertiliser, US military officials said. The attack caused a near-30km oil slick and forced the crew to abandon the ship.

The following day, the Houthis struck the MV Sea Champion, a US-owned vessel that was carrying grain to the Yemeni port city of Aden.

The Houthis, a band of militants that seized control of part of Yemen in 2014, have cast their campaign of violence as a response to Israeli military operations in Gaza and US support of Israel. The group gets weapons and training from Iran, US officials have said, and is part of a broader network of proxy militias on which Tehran has influence.