US strikes Houthi targets in Yemen for the third time

US officials said that the strikes on Tuesday were aimed at four missiles designed to sink ships that were being prepared to be fired from their launchers posing an imminent threat to merchant vessels and Navy ships.

The United States carried out a new military strike against Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles in Yemen on Tuesday, US officials said, a second follow-up attack against the Iran-backed rebel group since a US-led air and naval barrage hit dozens of the Houthi targets last week.

The strikes on Tuesday were aimed at four missiles designed to sink ships that were being prepared to be fired from their launchers and posed an imminent threat to merchant vessels and Navy ships, two US officials said.

The strikes came after the Houthis launched a new round of attacks in shipping lanes critical for global trade over the weekend, damaging a US-owned commercial ship Monday after attempting to hit an American warship the day before.

Residents in the area said Monday that they saw Houthi missiles being fired from remote and mountainous parts of Mukayras, a Houthi-controlled town in central Yemen, on Friday and Monday.

The missiles launched from Mukayras are believed to been aimed at ships south of Aden or in the Bab Al-Mandab Strait, while missiles fired from Yemen's western cities of Hodeidah and Taiz targeted ships south of the Red Sea or off Yemen's coast.

The US-led strikes on Thursday and Friday were aimed at more than 60 targets in Yemen controlled by the Houthi militia, and damaged or destroyed about 90 per cent of the targets that were struck.

Still, the group has retained about three-quarters of its ability to fire missiles and drones at ships transiting the Red Sea, two US officials said on Saturday.

The Houthis so far have been undeterred by the US-led strikes, vowing solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and have said they will continue their attacks until Israel withdraws.

On Tuesday, the Houthis fired an anti-ship ballistic missile into the Red Sea, hitting the Zografia, a Maltese-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier, a Defense Department official said.

The ship's crew reported no injuries. The vessel remained seaworthy and continued its journey, the official said.

Identifying Houthi targets is proving to be challenging for US forces. American and other Western intelligence agencies have not spent significant time or resources in recent years collecting data on the location of Houthi air defenses, command hubs, munitions depots, and storage and production facilities for drones and missiles, the officials said.

US analysts have been rushing to catch up and catalog potential Houthi targets every day, the officials said.

American forces are bracing for much larger retaliatory attacks from the Houthis, who began targeting ships after the war in Gaza began and are preparing escalating responses, senior US military officials said.