US and UK set to carry out joint airstrikes against Houthis in Yemen

The US and UK are set to carry out joint airstrikes against Houthis in Yemen “within hours” on Friday, reports claimed.

As reported, Britain is likely to join the United States in conducting air strikes on military positions belonging to the Iran-backed Houthis after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak authorized joint military strikes.

A Times report arriving late Thursday night claimed that UK prime minister Sunak held a full cabinet call this evening, with ministers believing it relates to UK and US military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

Furthermore, Sky News Arabia reported quoting a Pentagon official, that the missile air defences have been placed on high alert across the Middle East.

The move comes amid Yemen’s Houthi militants stepped up attacks since late November, on commercial vessels in the Red Sea in protest against Israel’s war in Gaza.

On Thursday, Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels warned that any attack by US-led forces on Houthi targets will spark a fierce military response.

“The response to any American attack will not only be at the level of the operation that was recently carried out with more than 24 drones and several missiles,” said Abdel Malek al-Houthi, the group’s supreme leader, during an hourlong speech.

“It will be greater than that.”