The U.S. and allies launch strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen : NPR

The U.S. struck Iranian-linked targets in the Middle East for a second consecutive day Saturday.

The U.S. and allies hit 36 Houthi targets at 13 locations in Yemen, the Pentagon said Saturday. On Friday, the U.S. struck facilities in Iraq and Syria, as part of a broader campaign that U.S officials say is in retaliation for a drone attack that killed three American soldiers. The U.S. says it struck Iran-backed proxies in each country.

The Pentagon said the U.K., Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand were involved in Saturday’s strikes against Houthi targets, saying they were in response to Houthi attacks targeting international shipping vessels.

U.S. Central Command said strikes targeted “multiple underground storage facilities, command and control, missile systems, UAV storage and operations sites, radars, and helicopters” used by the Houthis.

The current round of U.S. strikes is more extensive and deadly than those from the previous few months.

It comes in response to a drone attack on a U.S. support base in Jordan on Jan. 28 that killed three Army Reserve soldiers. An Iranian-backed militia group claimed responsibility for the attack. It was the highest death toll of U.S. troops in the Middle East in at least a decade.

Iranian-backed militias have mounted more than 165 drone, missile and rocket attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since the Israel-Hamas war began in October.

These latest strikes come on the same day that U.S. military officials say U.S. forces destroyed six Houthi anti-ship cruise missiles in Yemen in “self-defense,” saying that the missiles were to be used against ships in the Red Sea.

U.S. and British forces have carried out multiple attacks against Houthi military facilities, as the Iranian-backed group has continued to target commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.