DUBAI, January 12. /TASS/. The strikes carried out by the UK and the US on the territory of Yemen will not go unanswered, Yahya Saria, a spokesman for Yemen's Ansar Allah (Houthi) rebel movement, said.

"The enemy, represented by the US and the UK, bears full responsibility for this criminal aggression against the Yemeni people, which will not go unanswered and unpunished," the spokesman said in a statement posted on his Telegram channel.

Saria also warned that the Houthis would attack targets both on land and at sea following the strikes by Western forces. "The Yemeni armed forces will not hesitate to strike the sources of threat and all hostile targets on land and sea in defense of Yemen, its sovereignty and independence," the statement said.

In the early morning hours of Friday, UK and UK forces attacked Houthi targets in a number of Yemeni cities, including Dhamar, Saada, Sana'a, Taiz and Hodeidah. US President Joe Biden said that the strike on Yemen was ordered in response to "unprecedented Houthi attacks" in the Red Sea and that the strikes targeting Houthi munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities, and air defense radar systems were delivered "in self-defense."

After the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis warned that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory and would not allow ships associated with it to pass through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until the operation in the Palestinian enclave stopped. According to estimates by US Central Command, the Houthis have attacked more than 20 vessels and civilian ships in the Red Sea since mid-November.