The US military said on Thursday that its forces had carried out multiple strikes against Houthi missile systems as they prepared to launch attacks that threatened the US navy and merchant ships, Agence France-Presse reported.

Late Wednesday, US Central Command (Centcom) forces “conducted defensive strikes against Houthi missile sites that were ready to launch against ships in the Red Sea,” Centcom said in a statement posted on the X social media platform.

Later that evening CENTCOM forces “conducted a second strike against a Houthi mobile cruise missile that was about to be launched.”

Centcom said it spotted the missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined they “posed an immediate threat to US Navy ships and commercial vessels in the area.”

The strikes “will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US Navy and merchant ships,” it said.

On Wednesday, the Houthi news agency reported that the US and the UK had struck targets in Yemen’s Hodeidah province.

Iran-backed rebels, who control much of war-torn Yemen, including the port of Hodeidah, have targeted shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.