The U.S. conducted two "self-defense strikes" in Yemen on Wednesday against three Houthi mobile anti-ship cruise missiles preparing to launch into the Red Sea, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced.

Since Saturday, the U.S. has taken out 44 separate Houthi targets in joint airstrikes with the U.K. Meanwhile, the Houthis have launched 48 attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since Nov. 19.

The U.S. military says the Houthi missiles were "prepared to launch" against ships in the Red Sea.

"CENTCOM identified these missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined they presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region. These actions will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy and merchant vessels," CENTCOM said in a statement.

Earlier this week, CENTCOM published a video showing U.S. forces supporting joint strikes against Houthi militants.

The video showed rockets launching from the ships in pitch-black darkness. The efforts were part of joint strikes against the Houthis, which included support from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Bahrain, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

CENTCOM said that the Saturday strikes were launched by USS Carney, USS Gravely and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the recent counterstrikes are aimed to "degrade the capabilities" of the Houthis.

"These strikes are intended to further disrupt and degrade the capabilities of the Iranian-backed Houthi militia to conduct their reckless and destabilizing attacks against U.S. and international vessels lawfully transiting the Red Sea," Austin said in a statement on Saturday.

"This collective action sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks on international shipping and naval vessels," he added.

Houthi rebels fire missiles at U.S., British ships in Red Sea

Houthi rebels fired on British and U.S. cargo ships sailing in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen on Tuesday, causing minor damage to one but without injuring any crew members.

U.S. Central Command confirmed the attacks in a statement, saying the Iran proxy militia fired six anti-ship ballistic missiles from areas of Yemen under its control between 3:20 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. local time Tuesday.

Three of the missiles were targeting the M/V Star Nasia, a Marshall Islands-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier that was transiting the Gulf of Aden.

The ship's crew reported an explosion that caused minor damage to the vessel at 3:20 a.m., CENTCOM said.

According to an attack alert from the Royal Navy's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, the ship's master noticed a small craft alongside seconds before a "projectile" was fired at the Port side of the vessel which passed over the deck "slightly damaging" the windows of the bridge.

A second missile then impacted the water near the ship at 2 p.m. followed by the third volley at 4:30 p.m., which the USS Laboon intercepted, CENTCOM said.

"The vessel and crew are all safe. Vessel proceeding on planned passage," read the UKMTO alert, which urged vessels in the area to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity.

Three additional anti-ship ballistic missiles were fired by Houthis during that time frame at M/V Morning Tide, a Barbados-flagged and British-owned cargo ship operating in the southern Red Sea.

"The tree missiles impacted the water near the ship without effect," CENTCOM said. "M/V Morning Tide is continuing its journey and is reporting no injuries of damage."

Houthi spokesman Brig. Yahya Saree confirmed the attacks in a statement but said its missiles hit both targets "directly and accurately."

The attacks came hours after the United States conducted defensive strikes in response to the targeting of ships against Houthi explosive sea drones in Yemen and two days after a series of U.S.-British airstrikes against Houthi-controlled military targets in the country.

The first wave on Saturday, hitting 36 Houthi targets across 13 locations, was followed Sunday by an attack to take out anti-ship cruise missiles.

Unlike the weekend strikes, which were conducted in tandem with Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark and other allies, Monday's strikes were carried out by the United States alone.

The United States has been launching attacks into Yemen since Jan. 11 to try to deter the Iran-backed group from attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The Houthis say they are acting out of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting Monday on U.S. strikes in Iraq and Syria, after U.N. Political Affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo warned the ramping up of attacks against Iran proxies -- 85 on Friday alone -- risked a miscalculation, despite U.S. claims it was not seeking a conflict in the region.

"I reiterate the secretary-general's call on all parties to step back from the brink and to consider the unbearable human and economic cost of a potential regional conflict," she said.

They support Palestinians in Gaza. But what do Yemen's Houthi rebels really want?

They have no navy or air force. Their leader has a reputation for living on the move, shuffling between safe houses. And they emerged from a minority Shiite Muslim community in north Yemen’s rugged mountains in the ninth century.

Yet, this seemingly mysterious and hard-to-define group − the Houthis − has been fighting for control of Yemen for more than a thousand years. And now, they have managed to take on the overwhelming military might of the U.S., Britain and their powerful Western allies.

Since November, Iran-linked Houthi rebels have conducted dozens of missile and drone attacks on ships traveling in the Red Sea commercial waterway, a key trade route. The Houthis have sporadically attacked ships in these waters for years, but the attacks have spiked since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. Those increased attacks have prompted a growing number of U.S.-led strikes against Houthi targets including radars, runways, missile launch sites and logistics hubs.

The Houthis have directly connected their increased attacks to Israel's military campaign in Gaza and the skyrocketing Palestinian death toll. Their self-professed aim is to pressure Israel to stop the assault on Gaza that began after the October 7 Hamas attack. But Yemen experts say there is more to it than this.

So, who are the Houthis and what do they actually want?

Aligned with Iran − but only when its suits their interests

Yemen specialists say the Houthis are a political movement, a military force and a religious group. They have been fighting in a civil war in Yemen since 2014 against a fledgling government that is backed militarily by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and − indirectly, through weapons supplies − the U.S. and Britain.

The Houthi ideology and political platform is vague and contradictory, according to Gregory Johnsen, a fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington who studied and lived in Yemen for several years.

In an X thread, Johnsen said that beyond their stated reasons of defending Palestinians against Israel's onslaught in Gaza, the Houthis are seeking to exploit their attacks on Red Sea ships for their own political and economic ends.

"Politically, the Houthis need a rally-around-the-flag to mute what had been growing domestic discontent," he said. "Economically, the Houthis want to expand the local war in Yemen, because eventually they need to take either Marib or Shabwa (where Yemen’s oil and gas fields are) in order to have an economic base to survive long term in Yemen."

Military experts say that the Houthis' ability to target ships in the Red Sea would not be possible without Iran, which has supplied the group with sophisticated drones, and longer-range ballistic and cruise missiles.

Resenting U.S. troops in the Middle East, resenting American support for Israel

Like Iran, the Houthis resent the presence of U.S. troops in the Middle East and American support for Israel. In the wake of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Houthis adopted the slogan, "God is great, death to the U.S., death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory for Islam." It borrows heavily from a similar slogan used by Iran.

Still, Helen Lackner, a veteran London-based independent researcher on the Middle East who focuses on Yemen, said that "the Houthis are aligned with Iran − but only if it suits their own interests."

Lackner said the Houthis should be understood as independent group who take advantage of what Iran can provide in terms of weapons, propaganda and a political alliance that opposes the U.S. and Israel.

At the moment, she said, Houthi "decisions fit in neatly with" Iran's agenda.

Transforming a ragtag militia a force capable of challenging world powers

In order to fully understand the Houthi movement, it's important to know that it is rooted in Zaydi Islam, a Shiite branch of the religion that believes they should only be ruled by imams with a very particular line of descent from the Prophet Mohammad.

One of the distinguishing features of Zaydi Islam is that its followers have a commitment to fighting corruption and pursuing religious scholarship. This helps explain their religious fervor and, to a degree, the mindset of the current Houthi leader.

Abdul Malik al-Houthi took over as the Houthi leader from his brother in 2004 when Hussein al-Houthi was killed by Yemen government troops, according to the Counter Extremism Project, an organization that tracks extremist ideologies.

He is thought be 42 or 44 and is known for being a fierce battlefield commander who transformed a ragtag militia located in Yemen's northern mountainous regions into a fighting force that appears to believe itself capable of challenging world powers.

Al-Houthi is also something of an enigma. Many of his speeches are pre-recorded. He rarely appears in public because of fears he could be assassinated.

Believing in the Palestinian cause, with the ultimate goal of destroying America

Maysaa Shuja Al-Deen, a Yemen-born researcher at the Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies, said that when high-level foreign officials travel to Yemen, they often don't actually get to see Al-Houthi in person. Instead, they are taken to secret locations where he appears for meetings by video link.

She said Al-Houthi's ultimate mission for the Houthis is to "revive the legacy of his ancestors," a project she described as installing a Zaydi imamate, a type of Shiite theocratic system. Al-Houthi also wants to stop what he sees as the spread in Yemen of Sunni Salafi groups, part of Islam's rival branch.

Elisabeth Kendall, a University of Cambridge professor who specializes in the Arab world, recently told Britain's Parliament in a foreign affairs committee hearing that increasingly Al-Houthi "speaks as though he's the word of God."

On top of all this, he strongly opposes foreign influence on Yemen's government.

"He believes in the cause of the Palestinians.'' Al-Deen said. ''But his ultimate goal is to defeat the Americans''' military presence and political influence in the wider Middle East region.

'A combination of the Taliban, North Korea and FARC'

Farea Al-Muslimi, a Yemen-born research fellow at Chatham House, a London think tank, said the recent wave of U.S. and U.K. retaliatory strikes on Houthis aimed at deterring their attacks in the Red Sea are unlikely to work. If anything, he said, the group will seek to expand its attacks across the Arabian Peninsula.

Al-Muslimi described the Houthis as a "combination of the Taliban, North Korea and FARC." FARC is a Marxist rebel group in Colombia.

Some U.S. military commanders have said the Houthis are nimble at irregular warfare. Al-Muslimi said that the Houthis "are savvier, more prepared and more equipped (militarily) than anyone is really acknowledging."

This may explain why the Houthis don't appear to be backing down in the face of the U.S.-led strikes. And how they've survived an estimated 25,000 air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition as part of Yemen's long-running civil war.

Kendall, Lackner and other Yemen experts say that there's no question that the Houthis believe in supporting the Palestinians in Gaza. They said this is a genuine motivation for the shipping attacks. However, they note that the attacks are also consistent with the Houthis' desire to portray themselves as a major regional player.

The attacks also serve, Lackner and others say, the Houthis' broader ideological purpose of lining up, with Iran, against the U.S. and Israel.

'Skyrocketing' popularity for supporting the Palestinian cause

However, something else explains what the Houthis want. And it has little to do with Iran.

"The Houthis are not very popular in the parts of the country they control, which covers about two-thirds of Yemen's population," said Lackner. "But the population in Yemen − everywhere − is very pro-Palestinian. Since the Houthis have been undertaking these attacks in the Red Sea their popularity has skyrocketed."

In fact, Lackner said, the attacks have "transformed" the Houthis' political position in Yemen − "from being disliked to actual heroes" in a country where the civil war has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis and basic services have collapsed.

The Houthis took over Yemen's capital Sana'a and several major ports in 2014, demanding lower fuel prices and a change of government. Still, despite their apparent repudiation of corruption, Al-Deen, of the Sana'a Center, said one of the things people in Yemen dislike about the Houthis is their constant demands for taxes for nothing in return.

"No salaries, no services, nothing, just nothing," she said.

Lackner noted their transformation has not been confined to Yemen or the Middle East.

"Yemen, Yemen, make us proud! Turn another ship around!" pro-Palestinian protesters chanted during a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City late last year.

"If you go to pro-Palestinian demonstrations now in England, you'll see signs saying, 'stop bombing Yemen' and people talking about the Houthis," she said.

"These guys didn't even know who the Houthis were a year ago."