DUBAI, May 31. /TASS/. Houthi rebels from the Yemen-based Ansar Allah movement have attacked the US aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Red Sea in response to the UK and US strikes on the radical organization’s facilities in Yemen, the movement’s military spokesman Yahya Saree said.

"Within the framework of reacting to the US-UK aggression <...> Yemen’s rocket and naval forces conducted a joint operation, attacking the US aircraft carrier Eisenhower in the Red Sea," he told the Houthi-owned Al Masirah TV channel.

According to the spokesman, the strike was delivered with several missiles and rockets that reached their target. "This was a precise hit," he insisted.

Overnight on Friday, the US and UK delivered a massive strike on Ansar Allah targets. The US Defense Department’s Central Command (CENTCOM) later said that the coalition had struck 13 targets in a number of Yemen’s Houthi-controlled regions. The UK Ministry of Defense said that during the joint operation, three facilities in Hudaydah were targeted, including facilities housing drones and surface-to-air weapons.

According to the latest data, cited by Saree, 16 people were killed in the coalition attack and more than 40 sustained wounds. The casualties included both civilians and militants. The strikes were delivered on a building of a radio station in Hudaydah and a coast guard post in the port of Salif on the Red Sea. Overall, according to the military official, the coalition forces delivered 13 strikes on Yemen. Along with Hudaydah, Yemen’s capital Sanaa and Taiz Province were attacked.

After the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis warned that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory while barring ships associated with the Jewish state from passing through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until Tel Aviv ceased its military operation against Palestinian radical group Hamas in the embattled enclave. Since last November, the Houthis have attacked dozens of civilian vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

In response, the US and its allies launched Operation Prosperity Guardian aiming to ensure both the freedom of navigation and the safety of maritime traffic in the Red Sea. Subsequently, the armed forces of the United States and the United Kingdom began to deliver joint strikes on rebel-held positions in several Yemeni cities, using aircraft, warships and submarines, targeting Houthi missile sites, drones and radiolocation systems.