Here's a quick round-up on the US and UK air strikes launched against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen early on Friday.

US President Joe Biden and UK PM Rishi Sunak confirmed the strikes, saying they were a response to repeated Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

• US warship-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles and US jets attacked more than 12 sites, including in the capital, Sanaa, and Hudaydah, the Houthi Red Sea port stronghold, US officials say
• Four RAF Typhoon jets bombed two Houthi targets, flying from Akrotiri base in Cyprus
• President Biden warned of possible further measures to ensure the free flow of commerce
• Support was provided by Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands, the leaders said
• A Houthi official warned the US and UK would "pay a heavy price" for this "blatant aggression"

Houthi-run TV channel Al-Masirah has been posting on Telegram about the locations of the US-led attacks.

The network says that strikes have taken place on the capital Sanaa, including the al-Dulaimi air base near the country's international airport.

Other targets were said to include a camp east of Saada city, locations around the Hudaydah airport, the Taiz International Airport and the coastal Abs district.

Update at 09:00 GMT: A video has been removed from this post. The footage, broadcast on Al-Masirah TV channel, purported to show the US and UK strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. This was incorrect.

Houthis’ deputy foreign minister Hussein al-Izzi has just spoken to Yemeni TV channel Al-Masirah.

The network quotes him as saying the US and UK will “pay a heavy price” for this “blatant aggression”.

Jonathan Beale
BBC defence correspondent

The UK's strikes were carried out by jets flying from Akrotiri in Cyprus.

Four RAF Typhoons conducted air strikes on two Houthi targets using Paveway bombs.

Image source, Getty Images

In his statement, Sunak blames the Houthis for "a series of dangerous and destabilising attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea, threatening UK and other international ships, causing major disruption to a vital trade route and driving up commodity prices".

"This cannot stand," he continued.

He ends his statement by telling the Houthis that "we urge them to cease their attacks and take steps to de-escalate”.

In a statement released at the same time as Biden's, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says that the Royal Air Force participated in the attacks on "facilities used by Houthi rebels in Yemen".

"The United Kingdom will always stand up for freedom of navigation and the free flow of trade," he says.

"We have therefore taken limited, necessary and proportionate action in self-defence, alongside the United States with non-operational support from the Netherlands, Canada and Bahrain against targets tied to these attacks, to degrade Houthi military capabilities and protect global shipping."

Image source, Getty Images

In his written statement, Biden said: "Today’s defensive action follows this extensive diplomatic campaign and Houthi rebels’ escalating attacks against commercial vessels."

He added that the US and its allies "will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes".

He also warned of possible further action.

"I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary," Biden said.

President Joe Biden has confirmed that attacks have been launched "at my direction" against "a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways".

He said the strikes were carried out by US forces, "together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands".

Will Vernon
BBC News, Washington

Western officials have been sending stark warnings to the Houthis for many weeks now: unless attacks on shipping in the Red Sea are stopped, then there will be consequences.

The Houthis failed to heed those calls, and the attacks continued.

But the risk of further escalation is now high – the Houthis are backed and armed by Iran, which currently has a warship in the Red Sea region.

And it’s not clear how the Houthis themselves will respond – one rebel leader said on Thursday that if attacked, his forces would retaliate.

Image source, Getty Images

A Houthi official has confirmed on X, formerly Twitter, that attacks have been carried out throughout Yemen.

"American-Zionist-British aggression against Yemen launches several raids on the capital, Sanaa, Hudaydah governorate, Saada, and Dhamar," Houthi official Abdul Qader al-Mortada posted.

US officials quoted by the Associated Press spoke of a massive retaliatory strike using warship-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles and fighter jets.

The Houthi targets included logistical hubs, air defence systems and arms depots, they said.

AP journalists in Sanaa heard four explosions, but saw no sign of warplanes. Two residents of Hudaydah said they heard five strong explosions.

It is the first US military strike against the Houthis in Yemen since the Iran-backed group began firing drones and missiles at cargo ships in the Red Sea in November.

Chris Mason
Political editor

For Rishi Sunak tonight, a landmark moment of his premiership, a landmark moment in any prime minister's tenure in office: the decision to commit the UK to military action.

The government has the prerogative to do this without wider political consultation. But in this instance, ministers concluded there was sufficient time to brief senior Labour figures and the Speaker of the House of Commons before any strikes began.

This is more than a courtesy: ministers are aware of the scepticism, in Parliament and beyond, about the wisdom, or lack of it, attached to British military operations over recent decades. We can expect a statement and a debate in the Commons in the coming days, with the government pressed to elaborate on what it hopes to achieve, by when and at what cost.

This moment has looked increasingly likely: a military response to match the rhetoric threatening just that. And what next, diplomatically, geopolitically, militarily and economically?

There are risks associated with action. And risks associated with doing nothing. The risk of a wider conflict in the Middle East? A further shrivelling of shipping traffic through the Red Sea, a vital artery of the world economy? And all this after the twin global shocks of the war in Ukraine and the Covid pandemic.

More uncertainty beckons, unknown consequences abound.

A US official told Reuters news agency that strikes were carried out by aircraft, ships and a submarine.

On X, formerly Twitter, Yemeni freelance journalist Ali al-Sakani says: "Air strikes on Houthi positions in Sanaa, Saada, Dhamar and Hudaydah governorates, locals told me."

Strikes have been reported on the capital, Sanaa, and on Hudaydah, the Houthi Red Sea port stronghold.

So far, there are no details of the targets.

US and UK forces have begun air strikes against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, US officials say.

Faisal Islam
Economics editor

The UK Treasury has modelled scenarios suggesting that disruption in the Red Sea could drive up the price of energy and further shrink the British economy.

Officials have so far been pleasantly surprised that those impacts have not yet materialised.

But a military escalation that led to an Iranian blockade of the Gulf could send oil and gas prices spiralling, as well as threatening physical supply of liquid natural gas, which is transported in refrigerated ships.

If the disruption to traffic in the Red Sea does spread to the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, another energy shock is possible.

Such an event could have a significant impact on the world economy, prolonging inflation, just as the world’s central banks were pondering cutting interest rates.

It would also mark clear parallels with the 1970s, when twin energy shocks from the Arab-Israeli War and the Iranian Revolution caused prolonged inflation.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

On 19 December the US, UK and about a dozen other countries launched an international naval task force - dubbed Operation Prosperity Guardian - to protect commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

At the end of the month, US Navy helicopters from the nearby USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier and USS Gravely destroyer repelled an attempted hijacking of the Singapore-flagged, Denmark-owned container ship Maersk Hangzhou by four Houthi speed boats, sinking three of them and killing 10 rebels.

On 3 January, the US and its allies said the Houthis’ attacks were “illegal, unacceptable and profoundly destabilising”, and warned the group that they would “bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways”.

The Houthis responded with defiance, vowing to continue targeting vessels.

On 10 January, the US and UK hinted that they could take military action against Houthi targets in Yemen, such as launch sites, after their jets and warships repelled the largest attack yet.

A senior Houthi has said that "hostile actions" by the US, UK or Israel will not "distract us from defending Gaza".

Abdulsalam Jahaf posted on X (in Arabic): "We will confront America, kneel it down, and burn its battleships and all its bases and everyone who co-operates with it, no matter what the cost."

He also vowed that the Houthis would "continue to target Zionist ships and those going to [Israel]".

"We will tread on America with our feet," he continued, adding that his words should be taken neither as a threat nor a warning.

Image source, epa

Iran's other proxies in the Middle East have launched more than 100 attacks on US forces based in Iraq and Syria since Israel's assault on Gaza following the Hamas attack in October.

Like the Houthis, the groups that have been launching these rocket and drone attacks are backed by Iran, according to the US.

There are more than 2,500 US troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria who are stationed there in order to prevent the re-emergence of the Islamic State terror group.

Last week, the US launched a strike in Baghdad that killed a high-ranking militia member.

Last month, a drone strike carried out by the US targeted Iran-backed militants who the US says had critically wounded one American soldier in an earlier attack.

Image source, Getty Images

Liberal democrat MP Layla Moran is among those calling for Parliament to be given a say in whether the UK decides to strike Houthi rebels in response to their attacks in the Red Sea.

"If the UK plans to take military action, it's vital there is a vote in Parliament," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter., external

She also says that she and her party are "very concerned" by the recent attacks by the Houthis.

"It's destabilising for regional security and has a detrimental impact on cost of living in the UK too as ships are diverted."