US military strikes another Houthi-controlled site

In this image provided on Friday, January 12, 2024, by the UK Ministry of Defense, an RAF Typhoon aircraft returns to base at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus after striking targets in Yemen. The United States and British militaries bombed more than a dozen sites used by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen late on Thursday, January 11, in a massive retaliatory strike using warship- and submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets, US officials said. (Sgt Lee Goddard, UK Ministry of Defence via AP)

WASHINGTON — The US military early Saturday struck another Houthi-controlled site in Yemen that it had determined was putting commercial vessels in the Red Sea at risk, two US officials said, a day after the US and Britain launched multiple airstrikes targeting Houthi rebels.

Associated Press journalists in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, heard one loud explosion.

The first day of strikes on Friday hit 28 locations and struck more than 60 targets. However, the US determined the additional location, a radar site, still presented a threat to maritime traffic, one official said. The officials spoke anonymously to the AP to discuss an operation that hadn’t yet been publicly announced.

President Joe Biden had warned Friday that the Houthis could face further strikes.

The latest strike came after the US Navy on Friday warned American-flagged vessels to steer clear of areas around Yemen in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden for the next 72 hours after the initial airstrikes. The warning came as Yemen’s Houthis vowed fierce retaliation, further raising the prospect of a wider conflict in a region already beset by Israel’s war in Gaza.

READ: US, Britain carry out strikes vs Houthis in Yemen – officials

US military and White House officials said they expected the Houthis to try to strike back.

The US-led bombardment – launched in response to a recent campaign of drone and missile attacks on commercial ships in the vital Red Sea – killed at least five people and wounded six, the Houthis said. The US said the strikes, in two waves, aimed at targets in 28 different locations across Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

“We will make sure that we respond to the Houthis if they continue this outrageous behavior along with our allies,” Biden told reporters during a stop in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

Asked if he believes the Houthis are a terrorist group, Biden responded, “I think they are.” The president in a later exchange with reporters during a stop in Allentown, Pennsylvania, said whether the Houthis are redesignated as such was “irrelevant.”

The Pentagon said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the military action from the hospital where he is recovering from complications following prostate cancer surgery.

The White House said in November that it was considering redesignating the Houthis as a terrorist organization after they began their targeting of civilian vessels. The administration formally delisted the Houthis as a “foreign terrorist organization” and “specially designated global terrorists” in 2021, undoing a move by President Donald Trump