The US and UK had for weeks warned of retribution against the Houthi rebels menacing a vital maritime trade route. Late on Thursday, under cover of darkness, their response arrived.
The US Navy fired dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles towards Yemen from its destroyers and submarine around the Red Sea, while British jets launched laser-guided Paveway bombs at what the UK said were carefully selected targets. On Friday night the US launched a second bombing raid.
The strikes came after more than two dozen attacks were carried out by the Iran-backed group against commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea — a crucial global trade corridor now shunned by much of the world’s commercial shipping fleet — in response to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.