starts now. good evening. we re following breaking ne. the u.s. and british military have launched strikes against targets in houthi controlled yemen, according to two u.s. officials. this comes after the iranian-backed militant group has launched a series of attacks on commercial ships in the red ahich has stoked fears of a wider conflict in the region already reeling from the israel/hamas war. we have a lot to get to. this is obviously a huge development in the region. you re looking at a map right there. the challenge has been that the houthi attacks have caused ships that would normally go through the suez canal to have to go around the horn of africa, meaning it takes a lot longer to get there. there have been some limited military strikes that have killed some houthis that were involved in this blockade. the houthis launched this blockade in protest to the killing of palestinians in gaza. so that is just the setup, the background to what s going on. the houthis are an
rebels in the red sea. sorry, in yemen. coming up on the reidout, haley and desantis continue their sad battle for second place behind trump who is too busy bragging about destroying a woman s right to make her own reproductive decisions to even notice. the reidout continues after this.
oh, ew! i think you ve said enough. why don t we just switch to xfinity like everyone else? then you would know what year it was. i know what year it is. we are continuing to follow toni dramatic development in the middle east. the united states and britain have launched military strikes against multiple houthi targets in yemen. using fighter jets and tomahawks fired from navy ships. this comes after the iranian-backed militant group has launched a series of attacks on commercial ships in the red sea. let s bring in nbc news pentagon correspondent courtney kube. what is the latest news you have gotten? reporter: so literally, joy, the strikes just were carried out in the last hour. we know there were a number of targets. we re still working on the exact number to see if they actually, the u.s. and the british
protagonists and the arab nations, saudi arabia, uae, bagging the other. they re showing yemen. it s down there at the corner. what people recognize is where that corner sits in terms of shipping, again, 15% of the world s shipping passes right by yemen. and so there s been this ongoing civil war. you re correct, there had been a cease-fire, and as a result of the october 7th attack and the israeli counterattack, iran has encouraged these houthis to go after shipping. and not to confuse people, but it s hamas, hezbollah, and houthis. what do they have in common other than they all begin with an h, they all are part of the iranian proxies in the region. really what you re seeing is part of that larger conflict between israel and iran playing
try to degrade the houthis ability to carry out more strikes. think about places they might store or build some of those one-way drones. and things the u.s. in the past have taken strikes against the houthis in yemen, those are the sorts of things they have gone after. thank you very much. much appreciated. and joining me now is retired admiral james stavridis, former nato supreme allied commander. i think for a lot of people who may be having flashbacks to the iraq war era, including myself, please explain what a limited strike with this kind of ammunition, what kind of damage might it do, you know, what are we looking at here in terms of how damaging these strikes might be? yeah, can we just back up for one second and say, why we re doing this, because it makes enormous sense on the part of the biden administration. over a period as courtney just