Breaking news in the Middle East, where Iran-backed Houthi rebels are vowing tonight to retaliate after a new round of airstrikes by the US and the United Kingdom in Yemen. They were also supported by several other countries. Today, the group of countries hit at least 30 Houthi targets across more than a dozen different locations. Senior Biden administration officials say that President Biden approved these strikes earlier in the week. Now, all of this is coming just a day after the US launched other air strikes. Those were retaliatory strikes against Iran-back militants in both Iraq and in Syria. Those followed the deadly drone attack last weekend on Sunday on US troops in Jordan that left three American service members dead. Cnn's international diplomatic editor, nick Robertson, is live in Israel with more on what this could mean for the region. But first, let's get straight to CNN's Oren Lieberman at the Pentagon. Oren, unlike last night's strikes in Iraq and Syria, today's, the US did not conduct alone.

That's This was once again conducted with the UK. This is the third time the two nations have operated together to strike Houthi targets in Yemen. The message effectively coming out together from these countries saying that they find the ongoing attacks from the Iran-backed rebel group on international shipping completely unacceptable, especially because they have targeted US and UK commercial vessels and warships. Now, it is worth noting here that there were a number of countries backing them, including Australia, Bahrain, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, offering not only diplomatic support, but different kinds of perhaps operational or logistical support for this operation. We've seen that happen as well, a measure of how grave not just the US and the UK view this, but also all of these other countries involved because of the effect that the Houthi attacks have had on the global economy, on international shipping, considering they have targeted some of the world's most important international waterways. This set of targets, 36 targets across 13 18 different locations in Yemen, according to US Central Command. The list of different types of targets here, I'll read this off from their statement. Multiple underground storage facilities, command and control, missile systems, UAV storage and operation sites, radars, and helicopters.

In these pictures you see on your screen now, these are F-A-18 fighter jets launching from the deck of the Ike, as well as a destroyer here launching Tomaha Cruise missiles. All of that part of this attack here. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warning that if the attacks on international shipping don't start, then these strikes on Houthi weaponry will continue. Again, it's noteworthy here that it's not just this joint operation here. The US struck drones and anti-ship cruise missiles over the course of the last 24, 36 hours. So this is a much broader effort here. Alex, I'll make one final point here. You said in the intro here that President Joe Biden had approved this earlier in this week, and that's just as he approved earlier in this week, the strikes in Iraq and Syria. This is how gravely the US and the Biden administration view this, a determination to keep getting after this problem, even if the Houthis and some of the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria, vow to continue their attacks. The US, not deterred from acting here as well. Finally, I'll point out that in Iraq and Syria, Austin says US operations there, the US response to the attack last Sunday that killed three US service members, wounded scores more.

That's not over yet.

Yeah, they were certainly anticipating the need to carry out these strikes. Oren at the Pentagon, thank you very much. Nick Robertson, to you, the Houthies are now vowing to respond to the strikes by this international coalition. This message of deterrence doesn't seem to be working.

It doesn't, but it's rhetoric from the Houthies at the moment saying they'll meet escalation with escalation. However, over the past few weeks since these strikes began, about three weeks ago, the Houthes have continued to target international shipping passing through the Red Sea. I think despite the fact that once they've done their own battle damage assessment, they may find that they have lost a lot more equipment than they anticipated. This is a fighting force that went through about eight years of war with Saudi Arabia. Much of that under Saudi airstrikes that were, by the way, helped with US intelligence and US air refueling for some of the Saudi fighter jets involved in the bombing. So the Houthis feel that they've been through this thing before, perhaps not on this scale, perhaps not with the reach that the United States and capacity of the United States and its allies can put on the ground in Yemen. But the Houth is, for their part, are saying that they can withstand this and that they will come back and continue, and they have a track record of doing that. They're also saying that They're doing this because to support the Palestinians in Gaza, and their point being, and that point being made by the Iranians as well, that if the war ends in Gaza, if there's a ceasefire there, then all the region will go quiet.

But of course, the ceasefire that they're looking for is one that's on their terms, where Hamas comes out stronger, Israel comes out weaker, and the United States' interests in the region are weakened as well.

Big question about to what extent Iran is trying to resupply those who as they continue their fight. Nick Robertson in Tel Aviv, Oren Lieberman at the Pentagon. Thank you both. Let's bring in our panel of experts for more on this. Joining me now is CNN Global Affairs Analyst, Kim Dozier and CNN military analyst, Lieutenant General Mark Hurtling. Thank you both for being with me. General Hurtling, I want to start with you just because we heard Oren Lieberman rattle off that list of targets, including underground facilities, missile systems, storage sites. This seems like a rather broad range of targets, some 36 of them in 13 different locations. To what extent do you think, General, that the US and its coalition partners have been effective at degrading Houthi capabilities? Because it doesn't seem like they've been effective at deterring them.

Yeah, I believe, based on the number of targets and the type of weaponry that was used, based on what the over-the-counter intelligence is saying, the so-called OSINT, that it was both an air and a cruise missile strike, Alex. That's going to strike a lot of targets that are conducive to the hooties continuing to attack the sea-based platforms, the shipping that's going through the area. They talked about the underground targets. When you're discussing any force that lives in fights in the deserts like the Hutis there, there's no cover and concealment for the equipment or the ammo caches they have. The type of attacks have to strike into these deeply buried targets. We're seeing that in Israel and Gaza with what the IDF is fighting against Hamas. The Huttis use the same approach where they bury the things they're using, the rockets, the missiles, the equipment. It's much more difficult to strike and destroy those targets. But I think with what we're talking about here, the number of aircraft and sea-launched holistic missiles that have gone into this strike, I would suggest they have been deteriorating deteriorated quite a bit tonight. And this is, again, the first night against the Houthis.

There's going to be more.

Kim, the name of the game for the Biden administration seems to be, Knock it off, we're trying to deter you, while also not escalate things, taking powerful enough action to not escalate. There has been some criticism that those two things are essentially in conflict with each other. Moving from the Red Sea and the Houthis up to Iraq and Syria. We saw a rather powerful set of strikes last night. Seven different facilities, 85 different targets against these Iranian-backed groups. The Biden administration making clear they see this just as an opening response for that strike last weekend by militants that killed three American service members. How do you think the Biden administration is walking this line in carrying out powerful, they hope, deterrent strikes while also also not going beyond what they feel would be a line that would cause escalation?

What I think we're seeing is the beginning of a low-grade campaign in both the Iraq and Syria area and against the Houthis in Yemen, in that the Biden administration knows, though it's not going to say out loud to the American public, that it's not going to take away the will to fight of either sets of groups, especially when they're all backed by Iran, which has been opportunistic about looking for moments to strike the US or US targets with some padding in between so they have deniability. So what you're going to see is they take out a number of targets, then they watch. They do battle damage assessment, as Mark was talking about. They see who moves where, and they rack them up for the next time. Each time they get a little bit more understanding that it's not going to get down to zero, but hopefully it'll get in the Red Sea, fewer attacks such that some shipping can start again, and in the Iraq and Syria area, that they send enough of a strong message that they just quiet it for a time, weeks, maybe months.