American forces launched a second night of air strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen on Saturday morning, officials have said.

It is understood that US forces struck a target near Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, and witnesses reported intense air activity above the city.

CNN reported that Saturday’s attack was launched from a US Navy ship in the Red Sea and was carried out against a radar site that the Pentagon determined to be a threat.

The Houthi TV channel Al-Masirah reported that multiple raids had targeted Sana’a, including the Al-Dailami airbase.

The Pentagon has been approached for confirmation.

Saturday’s air strikes come just over 24 hours since a joint operation by US and British forces that targeted more than 60 Houthi sites.

In recent months the Iran-backed group has carried out 27 assaults on commercial ships in the Red Sea, provoking a military response from allied nations.

Earlier, Joe Biden warned that America and its allies would respond if the Yemeni rebels continued their “outrageous behaviour” in a vital global trade route but the US president insisted that the strikes were not an attack on Iran.

The strikes were supported by Western allies including the Netherlands, Australia, Canada and Bahrain added logistical and intelligence support, though Italy and France declined to join the military action, prompting fears of a rift between EU countries.

Iran, which plies the Houthis with weapons and financing, reacted with fury to the air strikes and Houthi commanders have vowed to retaliate against the raids, which the rebels said killed five fighters.

Earlier on Friday, the US said Yemeni rebels had aimed an anti-ship ballistic missile in retaliation for Thursday night’s strikes but it had not struck a vessel.

Diplomats from Washington and London on Friday defended the military action to the United Nations after the West was accused of breaking international law and raising tensions in the Middle East that are already high following Israel’s war with Hamas and its severe bombing of Gaza.

On Friday night, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, told the Security Council in New York that the West’s strikes were a “blatant armed aggression against another country” and “an attack on the people [of Yemen] on the whole”.

Mr Nebenzya added that the operation was disproportionate and illegal, and had “single-handedly triggered a spillover of the conflict [in Gaza] to the entire region”.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador, insisted the strikes were intended “to disrupt and degrade the Houthis’ ability to continue the reckless attacks against vessels and commercial shipping”.

The UN on Friday warned all parties to de-escalate conflict and Khaled Khiari, the assistant secretary-general for the Middle East told the Security Council “we are witnessing the cycle of violence that risks grave political security, economic and humanitarian repercussions in Yemen and the region.”

On Saturday, the Defence Secretary warned Tehran that the West is “running out of patience” with its support for the Houthis and the chaos in the Red Sea.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Grant Shapps said that Iran must tell the rebels and its other Middle Eastern proxies to “cease and desist”.