The President of the United States today confirmed the launch of a joint military action with the United Kingdom against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, in response to the increase in the number of attacks against vessels in the Red Sea.

In a statement, Joe Biden explained that, by his decision and together with the United Kingdom, the US had successfully carried out an attack, with the support of Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands, against several targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels.

The attack is intended to demonstrate that the US and its allies "will not tolerate" rebel attacks in the Red Sea, Biden added in the statement, quoted by some of the international press, stressing that the decision followed several attempts at diplomatic negotiations.

"These attacks are a direct response to the unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea - including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history," the US President emphasized.

According to the international press, US and British forces today bombed several sites used by Yemen's Houthi rebels in retaliation for the insurgents' offensive against shipping in the Red Sea

This is the first US military response to what has been a persistent campaign of drone and missile attacks against commercial ships since the beginning of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.