The US and UK militaries have bombed multiple sites used by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, several American officials have said.

It is the second time the two allies have conducted retaliatory strikes on an array of the rebels’ missile-launching capabilities.

They used warship- and submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets to take out Houthi missile storage sites and launchers, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The joint operation comes after US and UK warships and jets hit more than 60 targets in 28 locations on Thursday January 11.

That was the first US military response to what has been a persistent campaign of Houthi drone and missile attacks on commercial ships since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.

The Houthis’ media office said in an online statement that several American and UK raids targeted Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.

Jamal Hassan, a resident from south Sanaa, said two strikes landed near his home, setting off car alarms in the street.

An Associated Press journalist in Sanaa also heard aircraft flying above Sanaa on Monday night.

The latest barrage of allied attacks follows an almost-daily assault on Houthi missile launchers by US fighter jets and ship-based Tomahawks over the past week.

The rapid response missions, which officials said go after launchers armed and ready to fire, demonstrate the military’s increasing ability to watch, detect and strike militant activities in Yemen.

The chaotic wave of attacks and reprisals involving the United States, its allies and foes suggests the retaliatory strikes have not deterred the Houthis from their campaign against Red Sea shipping, and that the broader regional war that the US has spent months trying to avoid is becoming closer to reality.

For months, the Houthis have attacked ships in the region’s waterways that they say are either linked to Israel or heading to Israeli ports.

They say their attacks aim to end the Israeli air-and-ground offensive in the Gaza Strip that was triggered by the Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7 attack in southern Israel.

But any such links to the ships targeted in the rebel assaults have grown more tenuous as the attacks continue.