The UK and the US have struck 36 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday, escalating the conflict in the Middle East, just a day after it attacked Iran-backed militants in Iraq and Syria.

The Houthis were attacked in 13 different locations by the US F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Dwight D Eisenhower aircraft carrier, by British Typhoon FGR4 fighter aircraft and by the Navy destroyers USS Gravely and the USS Carney firing Tomahawk missiles from the Red Sea.

The US defence department said the strikes targeted sites associated with the Houthis’ deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems, radars and helicopters.

The British military said it struck a ground control station west of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, that has been used to control Houthi drones that have launched against vessels in the Red Sea.

The US strikes killed almost 40 people, according to a Reuters report. Shortly after the attack, Iraqi government spokesperson Bassem Al-Awadi warned that the attacks risked destabilizing the entire Middle East.

Mr Awadi claimed that the US “deliberately deceived and falsified the facts, by announcing prior coordination to commit this aggression, which is a false claim aimed at misleading international public opinion and disavowing legal responsibility for this rejected crime in accordance with all international laws”.

On Saturday, the US and UK launched airstrikes targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen.

According to officials, the airstrikes hit 30 targets in at least 10 locations  from air to surface platforms.

The targets include command and control, an underground weapons storage facility and other weapons used by Iranian-backed rebels.

Though the strikes in Yemen stem from a different conflict than the airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, both target Iranian-backed militant groups or rebels, further escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Washington said numerous aircraft, including long range B-1 bombers flown all the way from the States, pounded more than 85 targets linked to Iran’s revolutionary guards (IRGC) and its affiliates, strikes which may have killed as many as 40 people.

The sorties, which involved the firing over of 125 munitions, were in retaliation for last weekend’s attack by Iran-backed militants on US forces in Jordan. They will not be the last.

“This is the start of our response,” said US defense secretary Lloyd Austin.

More will come, President Joe Biden warned. “If you harm an American, we will respond,” the president added.

Bel Trew reports:

On Saturday, the US Central Command said it had struck six Houthi cruise missiles in Yemen as the Iranian-backed rebel group was preparing to launch them against ships in the Red Sea – as part of its ongoing conflict with Yemeni rebel group.

US forces determined the cruise missles “presented an imminent threat to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region.”

It comes just days after the US struck a Houthi drone base in Yemen after determining it also presented an “imminent threat” to merchand and navy vessels.

“This action will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy and merchant vessels,” Us Central Command said.

A total of 23 people, including nine Syrians, were killed during the US’s airstrikes on Iraq and Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.

The group indicated that 13 people were killed in Al-Mayadeen city and 10 were killed in the countryside of Deir Ez-Zor.

President Joe Biden on Thursday signed an executive order granting the Treasury Department the power to issue sanctions against Israelis complicit in the illegal settlement movement, which has been blamed for provoking tensions between Palestinians and the Israeli government.

In a message to Congress announcing the new sanctions, Mr Biden said he’d declared a national emergency “to deal with the threat posed by the situation in the West Bank, including in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction”.

“Such actions constitute a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, and the broader Middle East region and undermine the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States,” he added.

John Bowden and Andrew Feinberg report: