The United States said it has carried out new strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen and Iran-backed militia targets in Iraq.
US central command posted on X that “forces conducted strikes against two Houthi anti-ship missiles that were aimed into the Southern Red Sea and were prepared to launch”.
These are the latest strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis over its targeting of Red Sea shipping. There was also a larger round of strikes late Monday.
The Houthis, who control the most populous parts of Yemen, have said their attacks on ships are in solidarity with Palestinians as Israel strikes Gaza.
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The attacks have disrupted global shipping and deepened concern that fallout from the Israel-Hamas war could destabilise the Middle East.
The United States also carried out strikes in Iraq against targets linked to Iran-backed militia. Three facilities in Iraq were hit by the US military, Associated Press reported.
“US military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by the Iranian-backed Kataib Hizbullah militia group and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq,” US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
“These precision strikes are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against US and Coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias,” Mr Austin added.
On Saturday, four US personnel suffered traumatic brain injuries after Iraq’s Ain al-Asad airbase was hit by multiple ballistic missiles and rockets fired by Iranian-backed militants from inside Iraq.
Sources said Tuesday’s strikes in Iraq killed at least two militants, and that four people were wounded.
The US strikes hit militia facilities in Jurf al-Sakhar, which is south of Baghdad, al-Qaim and another unnamed site in western Iraq, two US officials told AP.
United Nations secretary general António Guterres on Tuesday said the “clear and repeated rejection of the two-state solution at the highest levels of the Israeli government is unacceptable”, as he appealed for more aid access throughout the Gaza Strip.
“The entire population of Gaza is enduring destruction at a scale and speed without parallel in recent history,” Mr Guterres told the UN security council.
“Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
He told the council that the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave was “appalling” and that “the people of Gaza not only risk being killed or injured by relentless bombardments, they also run a growing chance of contracting infectious diseases like hepatitis A, dysentery, cholera.”
Mr Guterres again appealed for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to ensure aid gets to where it is needed, to facilitate the release of hostages and to lower the tensions throughout the Middle East.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Tuesday the United States was opposed to any permanent change to Gaza’s territory, but kept the door open to possible support for any “transitional arrangements” to resolve the conflict with Israel. – Agencies