U.S. Navy warships and aircraft launched multiple strikes against Houthi rebel targets inside Yemen that were being used to attack both civilian merchant and military vessels operating in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, officials with U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.

The U.S. targeted a command-and-control facility along with weapons production factories and warehouses filled with missiles and drones that were under the control of Iran-backed Houthi forces in the capital, Sanaa, and along the coast. U.S. Navy and Air Force aircraft also knocked out a radar site and seven missiles and drones operating over the Red Sea, officials said.

“The strikes are part of [U.S. Central Command’s] effort to degrade Iran-backed Houthi efforts to threaten regional partners and military and merchant vessels in the region,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

The Houthis’ media office said Tuesday that 10 airstrikes hit a facility in Sanaa’s northern Thurah district and two more hit a second facility that houses the rebels’ defense ministry in central Sanaa, The Associated Press reported. Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the Houthi chief negotiator and spokesman, called the strikes “a gross violation of the sovereignty of an independent state.”

U.S. officials said there were no injuries to American personnel or equipment damage during the latest operations in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden.

The strikes came as Houthi leaders were claiming to have prevented an attack mission launched from a U.S. aircraft carrier operating in the Red Sea. In a statement released Tuesday, they said “a large number of drones and cruise missiles” were fired at the USS Harry S. Truman.

“The operation successfully achieved its goal and the American attack that was being prepared on our country was thwarted,” a Houthi spokesman said. 

The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, is an Islamist military and political organization that has declared its support for Hamas militants in Gaza by targeting merchant ships it says are bound for Israel or supporting the war effort. The northern-based group has also been engaging for control of the Middle East’s poorest country in a civil war that started a decade ago.

They said the operation against the USS Harry S. Truman coincided with ballistic missile strikes against Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv and a power station south of Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. 

However, the Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday said the missiles were intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory. 

Israel has launched its own retaliatory strikes against the Yemeni rebel group in recent days.

• This report was based in part on wire service dispatches.

• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.