The US military is stepping up Yemen’s Operation Roughrider in its upcoming talks on Tehran’s escalating nuclear program.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses warned Iran on Wednesday that he faced serious military consequences to support the Housis.
The US operation against Yemen’s Houtis is called Operation Raf Rider, and targets terrorists as the Trump administration negotiates with Iran about its nuclear program.
The US and Iran are scheduled to re-meet on Saturday for consultations in Rome. The Gulf state mediated consultations aim to seal off transactions that would prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons while lifting economic sanctions imposed by Washington.
The US and Iran have held three rounds of indirect talks so far.
The US is on strike from two airlines in the region, USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea and USS Carl Vinson in the Arabian Sea.
It targets Iran-backed Houtsis for group attacks on Israel and transport in the Red Sea, a key global trade route.
The Yemeni government has also been fighting the Houtis, which has controlled parts of Yemen in recent years. Just south of Saudi Arabia, Yemen sits in the Gulf of Aden and has a population of about 39 million.
Houthis, which supports Hamas in Gaza, says it will attack ships related to Israel.
Iran has provided drones and drone technology to so-called resistance axis allies, including Yemen’s Houtis and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Both use drones against Israel, but Houthis tended to target transport in the Red Sea and Bab El-Mandab Straits.
This was the UK’s first involvement in a newly strengthened US campaign targeting the group.
The UK Department of Defense described the site targeted as “a cluster of buildings used by terrorists to manufacture drones of the type used to attack ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, about 15 miles south of Sanaa.”
“The strike took place after it became dark when the chances of civilians in the area decreased further.”
Healy said the action was in response to a “lasting threat” from the Houches to freedom of navigation.
Guy Birchall and Jack Phillips contributed to this report.