British jets based in Cyprus targeted Houthi missile and drone facilities after weeks of threats to shipping in the Red Sea.
ADVERTISEMENTBritain and America launched massive airstrikes against more than a dozen sites used by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen overnight.
The action involved warship and submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles, and fighter jets, officials confirmed.
Britain's military said its destroyer in the region HMS Diamond conducted a "carefully coordinated strike to reduce the Houthis' capability to violate international law" after they damaged a number of merchant ships, and targeted military vessels, in recent weeks.
The UK said that four Cyprus-based Typhoon aircraft used Paveway guided bombs to strike two of the Houthi facilities, including one site in north-west Yemen which the British military says was used to launch reconnaissance and attack drones.
Britain also hit an airfield that it said intelligence has shown was used to launch cruise missiles and drones over the Red Sea.
US military hits more than 60 targets in Yemen
Meanwhile the US military says it struck more than 60 targets at 16 sites in Yemen, including “command-and-control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities and air defence radar systems.”
President Joe Biden said the strikes were meant to demonstrate that the US and its allies “will not tolerate” the militant group’s ceaseless attacks on the Red Sea. And he said they only made the move after attempts at diplomatic negotiations and careful deliberation.
“These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea - including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history,” Biden said in a statement.
President Biden noted the attacks endangered US personnel and civilian mariners and jeopardised trade, and he added, “I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.”
An estimated 12% of the world’s shipping passes through the Red Sea.
Explosions heard in Yemen's capital
Associated Press journalists in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, heard four explosions early Friday local time. Two residents of Hodieda, Amin Ali Saleh and Hani Ahmed, said they heard five strong explosions hitting the western port area of the city, which lies on the Red Sea and is the largest port city controlled by the Houthis. Eyewitnesses who spoke with the AP also said they saw strikes in Taiz and Dhamar, cities south of Sanaa.
The strikes marked the first international military response to what has been a persistent campaign of drone and missile attacks on commercial ships since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
The coordinated military assault comes just a week after the White House and a host of partner nations issued a final warning to the Houthis to cease the attacks or face potential military action.
The warning appeared to have had at least some short-lived impact, as attacks stopped for several days.
On Tuesday, however, the Houthi rebels fired their largest-ever barrage of drones and missiles targeting shipping in the Red Sea, with US and British ships and American fighter jets responding by shooting down 18 drones, two cruise missiles and an anti-ship missile.
And on Thursday, the Houthis fired an anti-ship ballistic missile into the Gulf of Aden, which was seen by a commercial ship but did not hit the ship.