The latest round of strikes occurred as the United States and its ally Israel struggle to halt a campaign of regional assaults by Yemen’s Houthi militants.

Israel struck multiple targets in Yemen it said were controlled by Houthis, the last of the Iran-backed groups still fully engaged in the regional war that began 14 months ago.

The head of the World Health Organization said he was about to board a flight in the Yemeni capital when the airport came under bombardment.

Israel is signaling a wider campaign against Houthi militants in Yemen, a mountainous and impoverished country more than 1,000 miles from Israeli territory.

The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen early Saturday, a day after the Huthi-held capital Sanaa was hit by fresh air strikes.

An American missile defense system was used for the first time to intercept a retaliatory attack launched by Yemen’s Houthis rebels at Israel’s central airport overnight as threats continue to escalate between the Jewish state and Iran’s terror proxies.

One of America’s prized Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries fired an interceptor in combat for the first time Thursday. The system, forward-deployed in Israel, was employed against an incoming medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) fired by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen,

The THAAD missile defense system, deployed in Israel by President Biden in October, was used for the first time to intercept a missile from Yemen. Activated amid rising tensions with the Iran-aligned Houthi movement,

Israel, for the first time, used theAmerican Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defence system to intercept a ballistic missile launched from Yemen on Friday (Dec 27), The Times of Israel reported.