US-UK strikes hit Yemen's Hodeidah, says Houthi media

Joint strikes on parts of Yemen killed at least 16 people in late May

Plumes of smoke rise from what is thought to be the site of an air strike in Sanaa, Yemen, on June 7. Reuters

US and UK forces have carried out air strikes on Yemen, the Houthi-run Al Masirah TV channel reported on Friday.

Four strikes hit Hodeidah airport and another attack was launched on the seaport of Salif to the north, the channel said.

No casualties were reported.

Neither the US or UK have confirmed the latest strikes.

Yemen's Houthis have launched dozens of drone and missile strikes into the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November, describing their attacks as an act of retaliation against Israel for its war in Gaza.

In response, British and US forces have launched at least five waves of joint strikes against Houthi positions in Yemen, where the Houthis are in control of the capital Sanaa, and most of the northern and central regions.

The latest wave of joint US-UK air strikes were in late May, when the Houthis said 16 people were killed and 42 others injured.

Washington, however, has been carrying out almost daily strikes against Houthi targets, including incoming missiles and drones aimed at ships, as well as weapon launching sites. But the missiles and drones keep coming, putting into question the effectiveness of air power.

The US military's Central Command (Centcom) said on Thursday it had destroyed eight Houthi drones and two uncrewed surface vessels in the Red Sea in the previous 24 hours.

Centcom said its forces had also successfully engaged a drone launched from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen and that Houthis had launched an anti-ship ballistic missile. There were no reports of damage or injury, it said.

Yemen's Houthi rebels on Thursday said they had launched two joint military attacks with the Iraqi Islamic Resistance militia group against ships at Israel's Haifa port, a claim denied by the Israeli army.

Like Hezbollah in Lebanon and other armed groups in Syria, the Houthis and the Iraqi group, which includes several armed factions, are part of the so-called Axis of Resistance, an anti-western political and military coalition led by Tehran.

The Houthis “carried out two joint military operations with the Iraqi Islamic Resistance, targeting two ships carrying military equipment in the port of Haifa and a ship that violated the decision to ban entry to the port of Haifa”, they said in a statement on Thursday.

“The two operations were carried out through a number of drones, and the casualties were accurate,” they added, emphasising that “the joint Haifa Port operation comes in response to the massacres of the Israeli enemy in the Rafah” in the south of Gaza.

On Wednesday, the Houthis unveiled a new solid-fuel missile in their arsenal that resembles one earlier displayed by Iran that Tehran said flies at hypersonic speeds.

The rebels fired its new “Palestine” missile, complete with a warhead painted like a Palestinian keffiyeh, at the southern Gulf of Aqaba port of Eilat in Israel on Monday. The attack set off air raid sirens but caused no reported damage or injuries.

Footage released by the Houthis showed the Palestine missile being raised on what appeared to be a mobile launcher and soaring into the air with plumes of white smoke coming from its engine. White smoke is common with solid-fuel missiles.