“At the direction of President Biden, I authorized these targeted strikes to further degrade the Houthis’ capability to continue their destabilizing behavior and to protect and defend U.S. forces and personnel in one of the world’s most critical waterways.

“For over a year, the Iran-backed Houthis, Specially Designated Global Terrorists, have recklessly and unlawfully attacked U.S. and international vessels transiting the Red Sea, the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden. The Houthis’ illegal attacks continue to disrupt the free flow of international commerce, threaten environmental catastrophe, and put innocent civilian lives and U.S. and partner forces’ lives at risk,” he said.

Austin stressed that the operation showed the United States could get to the military assets of its enemies “no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified” and was a powerful demonstration of U.S. global strike capability to attack these targets when necessary, “anytime, anywhere.”

U.S. Central Command said in a statement posted on X that the “multiple strikes” it carried out had not inflicted any civilian casualties on the ground but that its battle damage assessments were still underway.

The Houthi-run Yemen News Agency reported there were 15 raids in total, which it claimed also involved British warplanes, on the capital, Sana’a, and surrounding Saada governorate.

Citing a security source, it said six of the raids targeted Al-Telfzyon, Al-Hafaa and Jarban north and south of the capital and the other nine hit areas of Kahlan and Al-Abla, east of Saada city.

The BBC reported that several of these areas contain military bases that satellite images reveal the Houthis were building or expanding facilities buried beneath the ground.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed al-Bukhaiti said the group would not be deterred by the “aggression” and alleged it confirmed America and Britain were responsible for the thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza with Israel as their military proxy.

“The American and British attacks on Yemen will only increase our determination to continue our military operations in support of Gaza. Israel is nothing but a military extension of the crimes of America and Britain which it uses as a title to escape the consequences and evade moral responsibility,” al-Bukhaiti wrote in a post on X.

The attacks were the second airborne assault on the Houthis offensive capabilities in less than two weeks after the United States and Britain conducted naval and air strikes against 15 Houthi targets in Yemen on Oct. 4.

The strikes came after Houthis threatened to escalate military operations against Israel and following a September attack in which it launched almost a dozen ballistic and cruise missiles and two drones against three U.S. ships sailing through the Babel-Madeb Strait, which U.S. Navy destroyers intercepted and destroyed.

The Houthis have launched airborne attacks against Israel including a drone that killed a person in Tel Aviv in July and several missiles last month, prompting Israel to retaliate with airstrikes on infrastructure targets in Houhti-run areas of Yemen.

The group, which says it is targeting Israeli, American and British interests in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, has attacked more than 100 ships, sunk two and hijacked another in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since it began its campaign in November after Israel went to war with Hamas following the Oct. 7 attacks.

However, Houthi attacks have not been limited to the three allies and the threat posed has forced many shipping lines that use the Suez Canal-Red Sea route to sail to and from Asia to make a lengthy and costly diversion around the top of Africa and South Africa’s Cape Agulhas to reach the Indian Ocean.