Lord Cameron urges Houthis to stop reckless attacks after third round of UK-US air strikes
The Foreign Secretary has urged the Houthis to stop their "reckless" attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea following the latest UK-US air strikes.
Lord Cameron said the third wave of joint UK and US assaults on Houthi positions in Yemen took place after "repeated warnings" for the rebel group to cease its harassment campaign.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed that Typhoon FGR4s flying from RAF Akrotiri employed Paveway IV precision-guided bombs against multiple military targets that had been identified by "careful intelligence analysis at three locations".
More than 30 sites across 13 locations were hit by coalition forces, according to a joint statement by the eight nations involved.
Lord Cameron posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: "The UK and the US have carried out further strikes on Houthi military targets.
"We have issued repeated warnings to the Houthis.
"Their reckless actions are putting innocent lives at risk, threatening the freedom of navigation and destabilising the region.
"The Houthi attacks must stop."
The Houthis have repeatedly launched attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and elsewhere off the Yemeni coast, claiming they are targeting Israeli or Israel-destined ships in protest over the war with Hamas in Gaza.
However, they have frequently targeted ships with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, endangering shipping on a key global trade route used for accessing the Suez Canal.
As a result of the clashes in the southern Red Sea and the Bab al Mandab Strait, vessels have had to be redirected around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, a journey that takes longer and is more costly.
It is feared the disruption could increase inflation and push up the price of goods in shops.
'Not an escalation'
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said that this latest round of strikes on Houthi targets is "not an escalation" of the conflict.
The Cabinet minister has said that he was "confident" the military action had "further degraded" Houthi capabilities to carry out its missile and drone ambushes.
In a joint statement issued after the strikes by the UK and its coalition partners — the US, Australia, Bahrain, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand — the Houthis were warned the West "will not hesitate to continue to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways".
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said that as Houthi capability is discovered, allied forces would "try and get rid of it".
Defending the impact of the assaults by London and Washington, Mrs Keegan told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: "They are targeted and they take different targets each time — (they have targeted) the launchers, there has been some underground storage.
"So, they are targeted and they want to basically do this to get rid of the capabilities that the Houthis have."
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