The US said on Sunday that it had targeted Iranian-backed armed groups in West Asia for a third straight day, destroying an anti-ship cruise missile belonging to the Houthi militia in Yemen, which had vowed to respond to earlier strikes by the US and its allies.

The strike came a day after the US, Britain and a handful of allies said they had hit 36 Houthi targets in 13 locations in northern Yemen in the latest salvo aimed at deterring the group from attacking ships in the Red Sea. A Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, said on Sunday that targets in at least six regions of Yemen were hit, though his statement did not say how much damage the strikes had caused.

Soon after the statement was posted, the US military announced its latest strike, saying it had destroyed a Houthi anti-ship cruise missile that had posed “an imminent threat to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region”.

American and British warplanes, with support from six allies, had launched strikes at dozens of sites in Yemen controlled by Houthi militants. A joint statement from the allies said that the targets included weapons storage facilities, missile launchers, air defence systems and radars, and that the strikes were intended to deter the Houthis’ attacks on Red Sea shipping.

Residents said Saturday’s strikes shook buildings in Houthi-controlled Sanaa. The group’s military spokesperson, Sarea, said the US strikes “will not pass without a response and consequences”. The group did not announce any casualties. Houthi-run media called these “the most violent” strikes yet.

The Houthis, a militia that controls large swaths of Yemen, have launched dozens of attacks on ships traversing the Red Sea in recent months, in what the group has described as acts of solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli bombardment in Gaza. Their attacks have roiled the commercial shipping industry, forcing many vessels to take long detours around the southern tip of Africa.

The escalating confrontation between the US and the Houthis has raised fears that the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza could spread to other parts of West Asia. On Friday, the US carried out a series of military strikes against Iranian forces and the militias they support at seven sites in Syria and Iraq.

New York Times News Service