The US and British Army jointly launched strikes against sites linked to the Houthi movement in Yemen on Thursday, in a massive retaliatory strike using warship and submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets, U.S. officials said. This is the first on the country since the Iran-backed group started targeting international shipping in the Red Sea late last year.

The military targets included logistical hubs, air defence systems and weapons storage and launching locations, they said.

Following the strikes, President Joe Biden cautioned in a statement late on Thursday he would not hesitate to carry out further action if needed. "These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation," Biden said.

Britain's Ministry of Defence said in a statement that "early indications are that the Houthis' ability to threaten merchant shipping has taken a blow."
In a separate statement, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the Royal Air Force carried out targeted strikes against military facilities used by the Houthis.

Noting the militants have carried out a series of dangerous attacks on shipping, he added, “This cannot stand. He said the U.K. took “limited, necessary and proportionate action in self-defence, alongside the United States with non-operational support from the Netherlands, Canada and Bahrain against targets tied to these attacks, to degrade Houthi military capabilities and protect global shipping.”

A Houthi official confirmed "raids" in the capital Sanaa along with the cities of Saada and Dhamar as well as in the Hodeidah governorate, calling them "American-Zionist-British aggression."

The ongoing strikes are one of the most dramatic demonstrations to date of the widening of Israel-Hamas war in the Middle East since its eruption in October.

The U.S. military said on Thursday that the Houthis fired an anti-ship ballistic missile into international shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden, the 27th attack by the group since November 19. The U.S. military described it as a complex attack. Biden, in his statement, said the Houthis directly targeted American ships.

In December, more than 20 countries agreed to participate in a U.S.-led coalition, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian, safeguarding commercial traffic in the Red Sea. However, the U.S. and British strikes are taking place outside that defensive coalition. Biden said Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands supported the operation.

(With Agency Inputs)