Washington/IBNS/UNI: The United States and its allies, including Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, have carried out strikes against Yemen's Houthi rebels, hitting 18 military targets of the movement, the US Defence Department said on Sunday.

"Today's necessary and proportionate strikes specifically targeted 18 Houthi targets across 8 locations in Yemen associated with Houthi underground weapons storage facilities, missile storage facilities, one-way attack unmanned aerial systems, air defence systems, radars, and a helicopter," the department said in a statement.

The statement added that the strikes were conducted by the US, the UK, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand in response to the "Houthis' continued attacks against commercial and naval vessels transiting the Red Sea and surrounding waterways."

On the same day, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said that the movement fired several missiles at an American ship in the Gulf of Aden.

"The naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a specific military operation targeting the American ship ‘TORM THOR’ in the Gulf of Aden with a number of appropriate naval missiles," Saree said on X.

In addition, Houthis also carried out drone attacks on a number of US military vessels in the Red Sea, the statement added.

The Houthi movement, which controls large parts of northern and western Yemen, vowed in November 2023 to attack any ships associated with Israel until it halts military actions in the Gaza Strip.

This led US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin to announce the creation of a multinational operation to secure navigation in the Red Sea. US and UK forces later launched major strikes against Houthi positions in a bid to degrade the rebels' ability to target commercial vessels.