Middle East strikes live: British-owned ship hit by missile in Red Sea as US destroys Houthi drones

US secretary of state Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday on his fifth visit to the region since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, hoping to press ahead with a potential cease-fire deal and postwar planning while tamping down regional tensions.

But on all three fronts he faces major challenges: Hamas and Israel are publicly at odds over key elements of a potential truce.

Israel has dismissed US calls for a path to a Palestinian state, and Iran’s militant allies in the region have shown little sign of being deterred by US strikes.

In Gaza, meanwhile, Hamas has begun to re-emerge in some of the most devastated areas after Israeli forces pulled back, an indication that Israel’s central goal of crushing the group remains elusive.

Video footage from the same areas shows vast destruction, with nearly every building damaged or destroyed.

A British-owned cargo ship has been attacked in the Red Sea this morning, two days after the UK and the US jointly launched a fresh bout of airstrikes targeting Houthis in Yemen.

The ship suffered minor damage after being hit by a projectile while scaling off the coast of Yemen’s Hodeidah, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said.

The ship, located 57 nautical miles west of Hodeidah, said a projectile was fired at its port side and a small craft was seen on its port side.

The projectile passed over the deck and caused slight damage to the bridge windows, the UKMTO note said after receiving the report just after midnight.

The Barbados-flagged general cargo ship incurred physical damage from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) while sailing south east through the Red Sea, according to maritime security firm Ambrey.

No injuries were reported, the ship performed evasive manoeuvres and continued its journey.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The US has vowed to take more retaliatory action targeting Iran-backed militants in the Middle East following the death of three US troops in Jordan.

The US military launched its offensive in Iraq and Syria over the weekend in retaliation against the attacks on its bases. It separately targeted the Houthis in Yemen amid the ongoing crisis in the Red Sea.

“Part of the purpose of these strikes is to take away capabilities from the Iranian-backed militants in Iraq and Syria that are attacking our forces,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told ABC News.

The strikes had a “good effect” in degrading the capabilities of the militias and the Houthis, he said.

“There will be more steps. Some of those actions will be seen, some may not be seen.

“There will be more action taken to respond to the tragic death of the three brave US service members.”

Russia and the US sparred at the UN Security Council on Monday over Washington’s latest bout of attacks targetting Iran-backed militants in Yemen, Syria and Iraq.

Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the US of violating international law and continuing “to sow chaos and destruction in the Middle East”.

US ambassador Robert Wood countered that America had an absolute right to self-defence against attacks on its forces and that the actions it had taken were “necessary and proportionate”.

He told the council that since 18 October, Iran-backed militia groups have attacked US and coalition forces over 165 times in Iraq and Syria. A drone attack on a Jordanian facility hosting US forces fighting Isis extremists on 28 January killed three US army members and injured many more.

The US responded with 85 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria this month which both countries claimed resulted in civilian deaths, injuries and property destruction.

Those countries condemned the attacks as violations of their sovereignty – as their ambassadors did again at Monday’s council meeting.Mr Wood stressed that the US doesn’t want more conflict in a region where it is “actively working to contain and de-escalate the conflict in Gaza”.

“And we are not seeking a direct conflict with Iran,” Mr Wood said, adding: “But we will continue to defend our personnel against unacceptable attacks. Period.”

He accused Iran of failing “to rein in its extremist proxies”.

Russia, the closest ally to the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, used a UN Security Council meeting last night to accuse the US of attacking Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria in order to preserve Joe Biden’s image ahead of the US elections this year.

Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the US of violating international law and continuing “to sow chaos and destruction in the Middle East”.

He said violence by the US and its allies has escalated from the Palestinian territories to Lebanon, the Red Sea and Yemen and is “nullifying international efforts to reestablish peace in the Middle East”.

The Russian ambassador claimed the US was attempting “to flex muscles … to justify and salvage the image of the current American administration … in the light of the upcoming presidential pre-election campaign”.

And he claimed the Americans were undertaking military action in an effort “at any price to preserve their dominating position in the world”.

The Houthi, formed in the late 1990s, developed as political-religious Shia movement and launched a series of guerrilla wars against Yemen’s national army.

The group seized the country’s capital of Sana’a when the Yemen civil war started in 2014, which caused neighbouring Sunni Islam Saudi Arabia to intervene at the head of a western-backed coalition over fears of growing Shia influence on its border. Since then, the civil war is estimated to have killed almost 400,000 people.

The takeover of the capital prompted Saudi Arabia to intervene in a bid to restore the internationally recognised government, which has a Sunni majority.

A Saudi and UAE bombing campaign against Houthi targets was launched in 2015 and drew criticism over civilian deaths, leading to calls for the UK to cease arms exports to Saudi Arabia.

The US state department on Monday said it did not give Iraq advance notice of the strikes targeting Iran-backed rebels in the country on Friday.

The White House earlier claimed that Iraq was provided prior information about the airstrikes – a claim vehemently denied by Baghdad, who called the attack a violation of its sovereignty.

“As for this specific response on Friday, there was not a pre-notification. We informed the Iraqis immediately after the strikes occurred,” state department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Monday.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Monday met the crown prince of Saudi Arabia during his fifth visit to the region since Israel declared war on Hamas in Gaza in October.

“Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and I met in Riyadh to discuss efforts to increase urgent humanitarian aid and ensure it gets to those who need it in Gaza,” Mr Blinken said in a post on X.

“We will continue to engage in diplomacy in the region to prevent the further spread of the conflict.”