The US Central Command said on Thursday that its forces had launched strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, targeting anti-ship missiles ready for launch, as Yemen’s militia leader pledged to continue Red Sea attacks.

In a post on X, CENTCOM said that on Wednesday night, its forces struck two Houthi mobile anti-ship cruise missiles aimed at ships in the Red Sea, and that they also targeted another Houthi mobile land attack cruise missile preparing for launch two and a half hours later on the same night. 

This comes as the Houthis said that the US and UK “aggression” carried out strikes on Ras Isa in the western province of Hodeidah on Thursday, a day after another barrage of strikes rocked the northern province of Saada, the Houthis’ homeland.

Since Jan. 12, US and UK forces have carried out dozens of strikes against military sites in Sanaa, Saada, Hodeidah, Ibb and other Yemeni provinces controlled by the Houthis in an attempt to weaken their military power and force them to stop attacking ships in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Bab Al-Mandab.

Despite US and UK strikes, as well as local and international appeals, the Houthis have continued to attack ships, hitting dozens of commercial and naval ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The Houthis say that their strikes are intended to push Israel to break its siege of Gaza.

On Thursday, Abdulmalik Al-Houthi, the Houthi militia’s leader, boasted that their Red Sea attacks, as well as missiles and drones fired at Israel, have paralyzed tourism in the southern Israeli city of Eilat and turned it into a city of “fear,” as well as halted shipping activities at Eilat port, and that they are the only people who have dared to attack US Navy ships since the Second World War.

“For the first time since World War II, the Americans confronted a predicament in which their ships and battleships became targets …The US and British attacks on our country this week totaled 86 strikes and had no impact on restricting our capabilities,” the Houthi leader said. 

Meanwhile, Ahmed Awadh bin Mubarak, Yemen’s new prime minister, took the constitutional oath on Thursday in Aden, Yemen’s interim capital, before Rashad Al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council.

The official news agency SABA reported that Al-Alimi asked the new prime minister to prioritize solving economic issues, improving people’s livelihoods, paying government wages on time, fixing basic services, giving particular attention to Aden, and operating in Aden.