DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Joint British-American airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed at least 16 people and wounded 42 others on Friday, rebels said, the highest publicly acknowledged death toll in numerous waves of attacks on ships by rebels.

Three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an attack underway at the time, said Thursday’s strikes hit a variety of underground facilities, rocket launchers, command and control sites, a Houthi ship and other facilities. They described it as a response to a recent increase in attacks by the Iran-backed militia group on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden related to the war between Israel and Hamas.

According to official information, the US F/A-18 fighter jets involved in the attacks took off from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Red Sea. Other US warships in the region were also involved in the attacks.

But the Houthis focused on an attack Friday morning that they said hit a building in the Red Sea port city that houses Hodeida Radio and private apartments. Their satellite news channel Al Masirah broadcast images of a bloodied man being carried down the stairs and others being treated in hospital. It said all of the dead and almost all of the injured in the attacks came from there.

The Houthis described all those killed and injured in Hodeida as civilians, which the Associated Press could not immediately confirm. The rebel forces that have held Yemen’s capital Sanaa since 2014 include fighters who often do not wear uniforms.

Other attacks hit communications facilities outside Sanaa near the airport and in Taiz, the broadcaster said. Little further information has been released about these locations – probably indicating that Houthi military bases were hit. One person was injured in Sanaa.

“We confirm this brutal aggression against Yemen as punishment for its supportive stance towards Gaza and for supporting Israel in continuing its genocidal crimes against the wounded, besieged and steadfast Gaza Strip,” Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam posted on X.

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a representative of the Houthi movement, threatened both the US and Britain with further retaliation.

“We will meet escalation with escalation,” he wrote on X.

Yemen’s military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree gave the casualty figures and then claimed, without providing evidence, that the rebels had attacked the Eisenhower in response with drones and ballistic missiles. Another U.S. defense official, who asked not to be identified because of intelligence issues, said the aircraft carrier was fine.

In the UK, the Ministry of Defence said Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s carried out strikes in Hodeida and further south in Ghulayfiqah, identifying targets as “buildings housing ground control facilities for drones and used as storage for very long-range drones and surface-to-air weapons”.

“The attacks were carried out in self-defence in the face of the ongoing threat from the Houthis,” said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. “The Houthis pose an ongoing threat.”

The US and Britain have launched attacks against the Houthis since January, and the US has also carried out regular attacks of its own since then. Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the secret supreme leader of the Houthis, put the total death toll up to that point at 40 dead and 35 injured. He did not provide a breakdown of civilian and military casualties at the time.

The Houthis have stepped up attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and are demanding that Israel end the war in Gaza that has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage.

According to the U.S. Maritime Administration, the Houthis have carried out more than 50 attacks on ships since November, killing three sailors, hijacking one vessel and sinking another. This week they attacked a ship carrying grain for Iran, the rebels’ main sponsor.

On Wednesday, another US MQ-9 Reaper drone apparently crashed in Yemen. The Houthis claimed they had fired a surface-to-air missile at it. The US Air Force reported no missing aircraft, raising suspicions that the drone may have been controlled by the CIA. Three drones may have been lost in May alone.

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Lolita C. Baldor reported from Washington.