Houthi rebels vowed today to retaliate against US and British airstrikes on dozens of targets in Yemen, carried out in response to the rebels’ attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea.

The raids followed a series of US strikes against Iranian elite forces and pro-Iranian armed groups in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for an attack on an air base in Jordan that killed three US servicemen on January 28.

Based on what is known, yesterday was the third joint operation by US and UK armed forces against the Houthis in Yemen. US forces have launched several other airstrikes against the rebels themselves.

Despite these strikes, the Houthis have continued to carry out attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, saying they are targeting ships linked to Israel in a show of “solidarity” with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where war continues to rage between army of Israel and Hamas since October 7.

Yesterday’s airstrikes hit 36 ​​rebel targets in “13 locations in Yemen in retaliation for ongoing Houthi attacks against international merchant shipping as well as warships transiting the Red Sea,” according to a joint statement by the US, Britain and others. countries that provided support to the business.

According to the statement, underground weapons and ammunition storage facilities, missile systems, launchers, radars and other facilities were targeted.

The new strikes “will not shake” the Houthis’ “support for the Palestinian people resisting in Gaza and will not go unanswered and unpunished,” warned Yahya Shari, the Houthi military spokesman.

Without citing casualties, he said there had been 48 strikes “over the last few hours” in six provinces, including 13 in the capital Sanaa and its suburbs and nine in the Houthi-held Hodeidah region.

“Either there will be peace for us, Palestine and Gaza, or there will be no peace and security for you in our region,” warned another Houthi representative, Nasr al-Din Amer, yesterday, Saturday. “(We will respond) with escalation to escalation.”

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said yesterday’s strikes were aimed at reducing “the capabilities of the Iranian-backed Houthi militias to carry out their destabilizing attacks”.

In the early hours of this morning, the United States announced that it had launched a new strike against a Houthi surface-to-air cruise missile that was “ready to launch toward ships in the Red Sea.” Wounds were targeted by six Houthi anti-ship missiles on Saturday.

Also, the US military on Friday destroyed eight drones off the coast of Yemen and four more on the ground to “protect freedom of navigation” from Houthi attacks.