UPDATE: 60 targets, 16 locations, 100 bombs and missiles - US, UK strike the Houthis

Colombo (News 1st) - Update: US and UK warplanes, warships and submarines, carried out strikes on more than 60 targets in 16 locations against the Houthis in Yemen early Friday (12th), using precision-guided bombs and missiles. The Houthis have now warned of severe retaliation: Foreign Media.

The enormous escalation in the conflict came as the Sri Lanka Navy prepared to send a warship to the Red Sea on the instructions of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, despite much public opposition of Sri Lanka becoming involved in a conflict that many view as not its own.

Houthi spokesman Abdulsalam Jahaf said: "We will respond to any American aggression, and make the US kneel and burn its battleships and all its bases and everyone who co-operates with it, no matter what the cost. The world must prepare to hear America's defeat, and I say it with all pride: We will tread on America with our feet, and whoever does not know us, the battlefields will know about our strength."

Social media showed massive explosions in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, the main port of Hudaydah, the town of Dhamar and the north-western Houthi stronghold of Saada.

U.S. President Joe Biden said the attacks were carried out with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands.

Biden said he ordered the strikes “in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea.”

“Today, at my direction, U.S. military forces—together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands—successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways,” the president said in a statement released by the White House.

Biden added that he will “not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.”

The attacks came from fighter jets and Tomahawk cruise missiles that were fired from warships and submarines in the Red Sea. UK Royal Air Force jets flew in from as far away as the RAF base in Cyprus, while US aircraft were launched from the aircraft carrier Eisenhower in the Red Sea.

UK PM Rishi Sunak also made a public statement with regard to the strikes. The UK PM said that the strikes are "limited, necessary and proportionate action in self-defense".