Pakistan conducts strikes inside Iran as US hits Houthi missile sites in Yemen – live

Multiple blasts were heard in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan on Thursday, according to state news agency IRNA.

Turkey’s foreign ministry has called for Iran, Iraq and Pakistan to show restraint and common sense after an escalation of tensions in the region, most recently with Pakistan conducting strikes inside Iran.

“We believe the problems should be resolved with an understanding of friendship and brotherhood, based on mutual respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the countries,” the ministry said in a statement.

India’s navy rescued nearly two dozen crewers aboard a shipping vessel in the Gulf of Aden after it was struck by a Houthi drone, a spokesperson for the naval force has revealed.

The Marshall Islands-flagged MV Genco Picardy was hit late on Wednesday just hours after the US redesignated the Houthi rebels as a terrorist organisation.

The drone smashed into the side of the bulk carrier, photos posted by the Indian navy have shown, causing a fire that was quickly extinguished.

The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency have claimed that US and British aircraft targeted a number of areas in Yemen in overnight strikes.

The governorates that were targeted were Hodeidah, Taiz, Dhamar, al Bayda and Saada, the agency said.

The UK has not declared any involvement in the latest round of strikes on Houthi positions; the claims from Saba likely reflect a prevailing anti-US and UK sentiment among within the militant group.

The US military carried out more strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on Wednesday, the US Central Command said.

The military said that it “conducted strikes on 14 Iran-backed Houthi missiles that were loaded to be fired in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen”.

It added: “These missiles on launch rails presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region and could have been fired at any time prompting US forces to exercise their inherent right and obligation to defend themselves.”

It said the strikes and “other actions we have taken” would “degrade the Houthi’s capabilities to continue their reckless attacks on international and commercial shipping in the Red Sea, the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden”.

Huge explosions were seen in Yemeni cities including Sana’a and Hodeidah in the early hours of 12 January, with the US military saying 60 strikes were launched against 16 sites linked to the Houthis’ military operations. On Wednesday, the US military carried out more strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, the US Central Command said.

The military said that it “conducted strikes on 14 Iran-backed Houthi missiles that were loaded to be fired in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen”.

Below, The Independent looks at how the attacks unfolded and what weapons were used in the strikes.

On January 1, 2024, Italy assumed the Presidency of the G7 and Tajani answered questions about the possible deployment of an EU naval mission to protect ships from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militia in the Red Sea.

Would the US and the UK be prepared to put boots on the ground in Yemen (as Boris Johnson proposed)? Will a prolonged air campaign be enough to paralyse the Iran-backed Houthis? There are many difficult questions left to answer over the Middle East’s latest hotspot, warns Kim Sengupta:

Officials said they would design the financial penalties to minimize harm to Yemen’s 32 million people, who are among the world’s poorest and hungriest after years of war between the Iran-backed Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition.

But aid officials expressed concern. The decision would only add “another level of uncertainty and threat for Yemenis still caught in one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises,” Oxfam America associate director Scott Paul said.

The US military fired another wave of ship- and submarine-launch missile strikes against Houthi-controlled sites Wednesday, US officials said, marking the fourth time in days it has directly targeted the group in Yemen as violence that ignited in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war continues to spill over in the Middle East.