Houthi rebels announced on Thursday that US and British forces had launched a fourth round of strikes in Yemen, while vowing to continue attacks on ships in the Red Sea, AFP reported, taken by Agerpres

“The American-British aggression was aimed at the governorates of Hodeidah, Taiz, Damar, Al-Bayda and Saad,” the al-Masirah TV channel reports.

“We will continue to target ships bound for the ports of occupied Palestine, despite the US-British aggression that tries to prevent us from doing so,” a Houthi official told al-Masiri.

These rebels, who have been waging a war against the Yemeni government for nearly a decade, attack commercial vessels linked to Israel off Yemen’s coast in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Actions they say they are taking in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, a territory that has been besieged by the Israeli army since an unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7.

The escalation in attacks by Houthi rebels prompted a US and UK response to strikes that hit nearly 30 targets in Yemen last week.

The U.S. military announced Wednesday night that it had hit 14 Houthi rebels on land in Yemen with missiles to “protect” shipping in the region, the fourth Western attack in the past week.

“These missiles from the launch pads posed an immediate threat to US commercial and naval vessels in the region and could be launched at any time,” the US Middle East Command (CENTCOM) wrote in a press release published on X.