Yemen's 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.

US and British forces jointly target the Huthis for the third time after repeated attacks on Red Sea shipping.

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.

Saturday's 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.

- Dashed hopes -

Britain's 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, Yemen's 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.

- 'Unacceptable' -

Anger over Israel's 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.

US and allied troops in the region have been attacked more than 165 times since mid-October, mostly in Iraq and Syria, but the Jordan deaths were the first from hostile fire during that period.

The United States responded Friday with strikes against dozens of targets at seven Iran-linked facilities in Iraq and Syria, but did not hit Iranian territory.

Diplomatic sources have said the UN Security Council would convene Monday, after Russia called for a meeting "over the threat to peace and safety created by US strikes on Syria and Iraq".

Iran denounced the Saturday strikes on Yemen, saying they "contradict" declared intentions by Washington and London to avoid a "wider conflict" in the Middle East.

Hamas called the US and British attacks "an escalation that will drag the region into further turmoil".

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Tehran is ultimately responsible for the violence, telling the Sunday Times "what they're doing through their proxies is unacceptable".

"You created them, you backed them, you financed them, you provided them with weapons, and you will ultimately be held accountable for what they do," Cameron said.

What to know about the US strikes in Iraq and Syria and its attacks with the UK in Yemen

British forces on Saturday joined their American allies in new attacks against militia in Yemen. The U.S. military earlier launched strikes on dozens of sites manned by Iran-backed fighters in western Iraq and eastern Syria in retaliation for a drone strike in Jordan in late January that killed three U.S. service members and wounded dozens.

Tensions have been rising in the region since the Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7. A week later, Iran-backed fighters, who are loosely allied with Hamas, began carrying out drone and rocket attacks on bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria. A deadly strike on the desert outpost known as Tower 22 in Jordan near the Syrian border further increased tensions.

WHAT HAPPENED IN YEMEN?

The United States and Britain said they launched a barrage of strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen from fighter jets and warships in the Red Sea.

The strikes hit 36 Houthi targets in 13 locations, according to the U.S. and U.K. militaries. It is the third time in two weeks that the U.S. and Britain have conducted a large joint operation to strike Houthi weapon launchers, radar sites and drones.

The strikes came in response to almost daily missile or drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand supported the latest wave of strikes intended to “defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways.”

WHAT JETS WERE USED IN THE YEMEN STRIKES?

The Houthi targets were struck by U.S. F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, by British Typhoon FGR4 fighter aircraft and by the Navy destroyers USS Gravely and the USS Carney firing Tomahawk missiles from the Red Sea, according to U.S. officials and the U.K. Defense Ministry.

WHO WAS TARGETED IN SYRIA AND IRAQ, AND WHY?

The strikes on Friday came in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan on Jan. 28.

U.S. forces struck 85 targets in seven locations in a strategic region where thousands of Iran-backed fighters are deployed to help expand Iran’s influence from Tehran to the Mediterranean coast.

U.S. bases in Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour and the northeastern province of Hassakeh have come under attack for years. The Euphrates River cuts through Syria into Iraq, with U.S. troops and American-backed Kurdish-led fighters on the east bank and Iran-backed fighters and Syrian government forces to the west.

Bases for U.S. troops in Iraq have come under attack too.

Iran-backed militias control the Iraqi side of the border and move freely in and out of Syria, where they man posts with their allies from Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah and other Shiite armed groups.

WHAT WAS HIT IN IRAQ AND SYRIA? HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE KILLED?

The U.S. military said the barrage of strikes hit command and control headquarters; intelligence centers; rockets and missiles, drone and ammunition storage sites; and other facilities connected to the militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, which handles Tehran’s relationship with, and arming of, regional militias.

Syrian opposition activists said the strikes hit the Imam Ali base near the border Syrian town of Boukamal, the Ein Ali base in Quriya, just south of the strategic town of Mayadeen, and a radar center on a mountain near the provincial capital that is also called Deir el-Zour.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said 29 rank-and-file fighters were killed in those strikes.

The attacks also hit a border crossing known as Humaydiya, where militia cross back and forth between Iraq and Syria, according to Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who heads the Deir Ezzor 24 media outlet. He said the strikes also hit an area inside the town of Mayadeen known as “the security quarter.”

Iraqi government spokesperson Bassim al-Awadi said the border strikes killed 16 people and caused “significant damage” to homes and private properties.

The Popular Mobilization Force, a coalition of Iran-backed militia that is nominally under the control of the Iraqi military, said the strikes in western Iraq hit a logistical support post, a tanks battalion, an artillery post and a hospital. The PMF said 16 people were killed and 36 wounded, and that authorities were searching for other missing people.

WILL IRAN-BACKED FIGHTERS RETALIATE?

Iran and groups it backs in the region aim to put pressure on Washington to force Israel to end its crushing offensive in Gaza, but do not appear to want all-out war. The defeat of Hamas would be a major setback for Tehran, which considers itself and its allies the main defenders of the Palestinian cause.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group for Iran-backed groups, said it carried out two explosive drone attacks Saturday on bases housing U.S. troops in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil and a post in northeast Syria near the Iraqi border.

The only Iran-backed faction that has been escalating are the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and they have made clear that they have no intention of scaling back their campaign.

What to know about wave of deadly US strikes in Middle East

In the past 24 hours, the U.S. military has hit more than 100 targets across Iraq, Syria and Yemen, striking Iranian-backed proxies that have ramped up their own attacks on U.S. troops in the region since October.

Washington began late Friday with major airstrikes on more than 85 targets across seven locations in Iraq and Syria, a response to a drone strike in Jordan that killed three American soldiers on Sunday.

Then on Saturday, the U.S. military struck 36 targets at 13 locations in areas of Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels, a separate move in connection to the militant group’s ongoing attacks on commercial and U.S. naval vessels in the Red Sea.

The intense targeting of the Iranian-backed groups has been met with criticism in the U.S., with some lawmakers arguing the Biden administration’s response is too little too late and others saying it’s not enough.

The move has also roiled an already volatile situation in the Middle East, where the Iranian-proxy groups claim they are targeting U.S. forces in response to the Israeli war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, which began in October.

Here’s what to know about the strikes:

Targets

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), the arm of the U.S. military that oversees forces in the Middle East, began airstrikes Friday evening in Iraq and Syria against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force “and affiliated militia groups.”

U.S. forces struck more than 85 targets at seven locations — four in Syria and three in Iraq — using various war planes, including B-1 long-range bombers flown from the United States, dropping more than 125 precision munitions, according to CENTCOM.

The strikes also reportedly targeted the headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iraqi militia groups that includes Iranian-backed militants that provide official security in Baghdad, according to Iranian Telegram channels.

Areas struck included command and control centers, intelligence facilities and weapons storage facilities used by the Iran-backed militias to attack U.S. and coalition forces, the Pentagon later said in a statement.

The Biden administration has said the strikes are the first in a series of actions by Washington to respond to the attack in Jordan — which it has blamed on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of militias backed by Tehran. The actions are intended to wipe out capabilities used to target American troops as well as send a message to ward off further attacks, officials say.

“The goal here is to get these attacks to stop. We’re not looking for a war with Iran,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Friday.

Separately, on Saturday the U.S. and the United Kingdom hit 36 Houthi targets at 13 locations in Yemen using ships and aircraft, focusing on facilities and equipment used to attack international merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden, according to the Pentagon.

This is the third set of strikes carried out by the U.S. in Yemen as part of a coalition that also includes the United Kingdom, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

The targets included multiple underground storage facilities, command and control, missile systems, UAV storage and operations sites, radars, and helicopters, the Defense Department said.

The U.S. military also continues to hit Houthi cruise missiles in Yemen poised to be launched into the Red Sea, knocking out six on Saturday alone. Washington officials say these strikes are defensive in nature.

Timeline

The strikes come less than a week after three Army reservists were killed and some 40 were injured when a suicide drone hit Tower 22, a U.S. base in Jordan near the Syria border on Jan. 28.

The next day, President Biden met with members of his national security team, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Shortly thereafter, on Jan. 30, Biden announced he had decided how he planned to respond to the attack.

More strikes are expected in the coming days, with Austin on Friday stating: “This is the start of our response.”

Since Oct. 7, U.S. troops have been attacked over 160 times in Iraq, Syria and Jordan with a mix of rockets and one-way attack drones.

Deaths

While the U.S. has not come out with a tally of casulties in the wake of the strikes in Iraq and Syria, Baghdad’s government has accused Washington of killing 16 people, including civilians, and wounded 25.

In Syria, meanwhile, the strikes reportedly killed 23 people who had been guarding the targeted locations, according to Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as reported by Reuters.

There is also no official U.S. tally of any casualties from the strikes in Yemen.

Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, who spoke to reporters Friday, said the strikes were carried out with the knowledge that those in the facilities would likely be killed.

Response

Biden’s decision to authorize the strikes has been met with sharp criticisms on the right, with several GOP lawmakers insisting the commander-in-chief was too slow in his response or had not gone far enough.

“The tragic deaths of three U.S. troops in Jordan, perpetrated by Iran-backed militias, demanded a clear and forceful response. Unfortunately, the administration waited for a week and telegraphed to the world, including to Iran, the nature of our response,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a statement.

And Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said the airstrikes are “welcome,” but “too late” for those who died.

Other Republicans, including former national security adviser John Bolton, called for Biden to authorize strikes in Iran directly, so it can “send a message.”

That route is unlikely considering that any move hitting Iranian soil could provoke an all-out war between Washington and Tehran, something Biden has repeatedly said he does not want.

The strikes in Iraq are also expected to further intensify ongoing discussions between Baghdad and Washington over the future of the American military presence in the country, where some 2,500 troops are based to train and assist Iraq in the fight against Islamic State extremist group.

Iraqi officials complain their country is being turned back into a warzone as the U.S. and Iranian groups clash, with a government spokesperson on Saturday accusing the U.S. of violating international law and lying about the circumstances surrounding its retaliatory strikes.

U.S. officials said they informed the Iraqi government prior to carrying out the strikes, but Bassem Al-Awadi claims that Washington “deliberately deceived and falsified the facts, by announcing prior coordination to commit this aggression, which is a false claim aimed at misleading international public opinion and disavowing legal responsibility for this rejected crime in accordance with all international laws.”

In Iran, meanwhile, groups quickly condemned the U.S. for the attack with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warning in a Friday address that Tehran would respond.

“We have often clarified that Iran will not initiate a war but will answer bullies firmly and authoritatively,” Raisi said, according to state-run news outlet Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

And Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Saturday said the move worsens the chance of reaching a political solution in the Middle East.

The U.S. decision has “complicated the situation and made it more difficult to reach a political solution,” Amir-Abdollahian told the United Nations’ special envoy for Yemen while meeting in Tehran, according to IRNA.

He added that the U.S. strikes were a “continuation of Washington’s wrong and failed approach to resolve issues by force and through militarism.”

The United Nations Security Council is also expected to meet on Monday to discuss the U.S. strikes in Iraq and Syria, CNN reported.

Sullivan says US retaliatory strikes in Middle East ‘not the end of it’

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday confirmed the United States “intends” to launch additional strikes and action against Iranian-backed groups following its two rounds of strikes over the weekend in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

The U.S. military began its first round of airstrikes on Iranian-backed groups in Syria and Iraq last Friday in response to an attack on a base in Jordan last week that killed three American troops and injured about 40 others.

The U.S. and Britain launched a separate wave of strikes the next day against Houthi rebels — which are also backed by Iran — in Yemen.

Sullivan, in an interview with NBC News’s “Meet The Press,” said President Biden’s order for a “serious response” is “now underway.”

“It began with strikes on Friday night but that is not the end of it. We intend to take additional strikes and additional action to continue to send a clear message that that the United States will respond when our forces are attacked, or people are killed,” Sullivan told NBC News anchor Kristin Welker.

Asked if the weekend retaliatory strikes successfully hit the intended targets, Sullivan said U.S. forces are still assessing the number of casualties among the militia groups.

“We do believe that the strikes had good effect and degrading capability to these militant groups that attacked us,” he said. “And we do believe that as we continue, we will be able to continue to send a strong message about the United States [and it’s] firm resolve to respond when our forces are attacked.”

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) last Friday said over 85 targets were hit in the first round of strikes in Iraq and Syria against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force “and affiliated militia groups.”

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the goal of the strikes is to halt attacks and empathized the U.S. is “not looking for a war with Iran.”

The second round of strikes, conducted by the U.S. and the United Kingdom on Saturday with fighter jets and ships, were aimed at 13 locations associated with the Iran-backed Houthis’ weapons storage facilities, missile systems, air defense systems and radars, the Pentagon said.

The rebel group has launched a series of missile or drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the Red Sea in recent months, disrupting trade routes and destabilizing the region against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Palestinian militant group Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group also backed by Iran.

Sullivan declined to say if the U.S. would launch strikes directly in Iran, stating it would “not be wise” for him to discuss what the U.S. is “ruling in and ruling out.”

Houthi rebel officials on Sunday vowed to push forward with their military operations and respond to the latest set of strikes.

Ameen Hayyan, a spokesman for the group, said Sunday on X, formerly Twitter, that the latest U.S. and U.K. attacks “will not deter us from our moral, religious and humanitarian stance” in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The rebel group has claimed it is hitting Israeli-linked ships, but Sullivan said Sunday that the Houthis are attacking shipping “that has absolutely nothing to do with Israel.”

U.S. officials said last week U.S. troops have come under fire from various Iranian-backed groups over 160 times since last October.