HODEIDA (AFP) — The United States and Britain carried out air-strikes on Yemen in what they said was a bid to degrade Iran-backed rebels’ maritime attack capabilities, with Houthi media on Friday reporting 16 killed.

Agence France-Presse journalists heard loud explosions in the capital Sanaa and the port city of Hodeida overnight from Thursday to Friday.

Strikes also targeted telecoms infrastructure in the town of Taez, the Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah television reported.

Citing health authorities, the TV station said 16 people were killed and more than 35 were wounded in Hodeida alone, without specifying if they were civilians or militants.

The toll reported by Al-Masirah would make the strikes among the deadliest since the US and Britain launched a campaign in January to counter Houthi attacks off Yemen’s coast.

“The American-British aggression will not prevent us from continuing our military operations in support of Palestine,” Houthi official Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti said on social media platform X, adding the rebels would “meet escalation with escalation.”

The Houthis have been targeting shipping around the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November, citing solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has been bombarded by Israel since terrorist group Hamas launched an attack inside Israel on 7 October.