U.S. destroyed Houthi missile in military’s latest airstrike

The U.S. military said that it had conducted an airstrike in Yemen early Saturday that destroyed a Houthi anti-ship missile, the latest in a series of American strikes aimed at stopping the Iranian-backed group from firing missiles at ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

The strike hit a Houthi missile that was aimed at the gulf and was prepared to launch, the military said. It was the seventh time in 11 days the U.S. Navy launched attacks on Yemeni territory.

“U.S. forces determined the missile presented a threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region, and subsequently struck and destroyed the missile,” U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East, said in a statement.

The statement did not say what types of weapons were used in the airstrikes, but previous strikes have used cruiser missiles and munitions dropped by fighter jets.

The Houthis, an armed group that controls the west of Yemen and much of its Red Sea coast, have said that they will keep up their attacks on ships in what they say is a protest against Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip against Hamas. The group’s ideology is built largely on its opposition to Israel and American influence in the region.

Earlier this month, the United States and its allies, including Britain, began conducting airstrikes in Yemen with the goal of deterring the Houthis from conducting further attacks on shipping lanes around the Red Sea, which are critical for global trade. There have been back-to-back U.S. airstrikes in recent days.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.