The United States led another strike against the Houthi militia in Yemen, two US officials said Friday (Jan 12) night, bombing a radar facility as part of an effort to further degrade the Iran-backed group’s ability to attack ships transiting the Red Sea.

It was the second straight day that the US military fired on a Houthi target, after a U.S.-led barrage of military strikes early Friday local time that was aimed at securing crucial shipping routes between Europe and Asia. The strikes come amid fears of a wider escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.

Houthi forces in Yemen vowed earlier Friday to retaliate for the previous strikes, which involved missiles and warplanes launched by the United States and Britain, and came in response to intensifying attacks on commercial vessels and warships in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Houthi militia, which has said it was acting in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas.

A military spokesperson for the Houthis, Yahya Saree, said in a post on social media that the US-led strikes would “not go unanswered and unpunished.” He said the strikes had killed at least five members of the Houthi forces, an armed group that controls northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa.

US and British forces fired more than 150 missiles and bombs at several dozen targets in Yemen, chosen specifically to damage the Houthis’ ability to imperil shipping – weapons storage areas, radars, and missile and drone launch sites – US officials said. It was the first Western assault after repeated warnings by the United States and its allies that the Houthis and Iran must halt the attacks at sea or face consequences, only to see them increase.

“I would expect that they will attempt some sort of retaliation,” said Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, director of the US military’s Joint Staff, told reporters on a conference call Friday before the new strike, adding that would be a mistake.

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The response Friday from the Houthis, however, was a single anti-ship missile lobbed harmlessly into the Red Sea, far from any passing vessel, Sims said.

White House spokesperson John Kirby said Friday that the attacks, ordered by President Joe Biden, had not been intended to ignite a wider regional war. Kirby said that everything that the United States hit was a “valid, legitimate military target.” NYT