Great Britain said it helped the U.S. in "proportionate and targeted" strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen to further degrade their capabilities.
"The Royal Air Force engaged in a third wave of proportionate and targeted strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen," U.K. Defense Minister Grant Shapps said in statement, according to Reuters. "We acted alongside our U.S. allies, with the support of many international partners, in self-defense and in accordance with international law."
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement the U.S. and U.K. were backed by a coalition of countries that included Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.
On Friday, the U.S. conducted strikes in Iraq and Syria against more than 85 targets linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the groups it backs, reportedly killing nearly 40 people.
Those strikes were retaliation for a drone strike that killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded more than 40 other American service members in Jordan on Jan. 28 by Iranian-backed terrorists.
The Houthis have been targeting commercial ships and U.S. warships with drones and missiles in the Red Sea and crippling global trade, blaming Israel's war against Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s, supported by Voyager tankers, joined U.S. forces in striking Houthi locations in Yemen that have been involved in a campaign of targeting commercial and U.S. Navy vessels in the Red Sea, Shapps' office said in a news release.
The Typhoons used Paveway IV precision-guided bombs against multiple targets at three locations: At As Salif, due west of Sanaa on the Red Sea coast, at Al Munirah, on the same stretch of coastline and at Bani.
Saturday's strikes marked the third time the U.S. and Britain had conducted a large joint operation to strike Houthi weapon launchers, radar sites, and drones.
That has fueled fears that the conflict could spread to other regions in the Middle East.
"This is not an escalation," Shapps said. "We have already successfully targeted launchers and storage sites involved in Houthi attacks, and I am confident that our latest strikes have further degraded the Houthis' capabilities."