By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States and Britain launched strikes against 36 targets in Yemen on Saturday, in the second day of major U.S. operations against Iran-linked groups following a deadly attack on American troops last weekend.
The strikes hit buried Houthi weapons storage facilities, missile systems, launchers and other capabilities that the Houthis have used to attack Red Sea shipping, and targeted 13 locations across the country, the Pentagon said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes also had support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand.
“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,” Austin said in a statement.
“We will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways.”
On Friday, the United States carried out strikes in Iraq and Syria against more than 85 targets linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and militias it backs, reportedly killing nearly 40 people.
Those strikes, which were condemned by Iran and by Iraq, were retaliation for a drone strike that killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded more than 40 other American service members in Jordan last Sunday.
But while the United States accuses Iran-backed militias of attacking U.S. troops at bases in Iraq, Syria and Jordan, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have been targeting commercial ships and warships in the Red Sea.
The Houthis, who control the most populous parts of Yemen, say their attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians as Israel strikes Gaza. But the U.S. and its allies characterizes the Houthi attacks as indiscriminate and a menace to global trade.
The United States has previously carried out more than 10 strikes against Houthi targets in the past several weeks, but they have failed to stop attacks by the group.
The Houthi-run Yemeni News Agency (Saba) said the U.S. and Britain launched 14 raids on Saturday on the governorates of Taiz and Hodeidah.
Eleven of the attacks targeted the Al-Barah area in the Maqbanah District and areas in the Haifan District, a security source told the news agency. The other three attacks targeted Jabal Al-Jada’ in Al-Lahiya District and the Al-Salif District in Al-Hudaydah Governorate.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; additional reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Yemen and Ahmed Tolba in Cairo; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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