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U.S., U.K. launch new round of joint strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen
U.S. and U.K. military forces late Saturday night launched joint airstrikes on Iranian-backed Houthi targets in Yemen, two U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News.
The airstrikes come one day after the U.S. launched retaliatory airstrikes on more than 85 targets of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its affiliated militias in Syria and Iraq in response to last weekend’s drone strike on a Jordanian base which killed three U.S. service members.
Saturday night’s airstrikes came in addition to self-defense strikes that were launched earlier Saturday evening targeting six Houthi anti-ship cruise missiles that were being prepared for launch against ships in the Red Sea, U.S. Central Command said.
A U.S. defense official told CBS News that since Friday’s strikes in Iraq and Syria, there has been one attack on U.S. forces. In that attack, multiple rockets targeted U.S. forces based at the Mission Support Site Euphrates in Syria, but there were no reports of injuries or damage.
Saturday night’s assault is the third time that the U.S. and U.K. have taken part in joint airstrikes since Yemen-based Houthi militants began launching attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea. Houthis launched the attacks in an act of solidarity with the Hamas militants who invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 people and as retaliation against Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which officials in the Hamas-run enclave say has killed more than 26,000 people.
There have been 167 attacks by Iranian-backed groups on U.S. forces in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since Oct 17 of last year.
Osamah Yahya/picture alliance via Getty Images
— David Martin and Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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A teacher and student killed in a shooting earlier this week at a school in Madison, Wisconsin, were identified Wednesday by authorities.
The Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office said in a news release provided to CBS News that 42-year-old Erin West and 14-year-old Rubi Vergara were fatally shot Monday morning at Abundant Life Christian School.
Preliminary examinations determined the two died of “homicidal firearm related trauma.” Both were pronounced dead at the scene, the medical examiner said.
An online obituary on a local funeral site stated Vergara was a freshman who leaves behind her parents, one brother, and a large extended family. It described her as “an avid reader” who “loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band.”
West’s exact position with the school was unclear.
The medical examiner also confirmed that a preliminary autopsy found that the suspected shooter, 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow — a student at the same school — was pronounced dead at a local hospital Monday of “firearm related trauma.” Madison Chief of Police Shon F. Barnes had previously told reporters that Rupnow was pronounced dead while being transported to a hospital.
Police had also previously stated that she was believed to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The shooting at the private Christian K-12 school was reported just before 11 a.m. Monday. In addition to the two people killed and the shooter, six others were wounded.
Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom where a study hall was taking place involving students from several grades.
A handgun was recovered after the shooting, Barnes said, but it was unclear where the gun came from or how many shots were fired. A law enforcement source said the weapon used in the shooting appears to have been a 9 mm pistol.
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