U.S. Central Command

Israel was on alert Thursday after its arch-foe Iran threatened reprisals over a strike in Syria this month that killed two Iranian generals, and as the war against Hamas ground on in Gaza.

U.S. forces struck and destroyed a Huthi surface-to-air missile in Yemen on Friday after deciding it posed an "imminent threat" to American aircraft, the U.S. Central Command in the Middle East announced.

American forces launched "self-defense strikes" Wednesday against Huthi missiles and launch positions in rebel-controlled Yemen that posed threats to commercial shipping and naval forces in the Red Sea, the U.S. military said.

The United States military confirmed Thursday its forces conducted multiple strikes against Huthi missile systems as the Yemen-based rebel group prepared to launch attacks that threatened U.S. Navy and merchant ships.

The joint air raids in Yemen come a day after a separate wave of unilateral American strikes against Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria that were carried out in response to the killing of three U.S. soldiers in Jordan on Jan. 28.

Yemeni Huthi rebels claimed on Friday they had launched a barrage of missiles toward Israel, after the Israeli army said it had intercepted a missile over the Red Sea.

The U.S. military launched retaliatory air strikes against Iranian forces and Tehran-backed militia groups in both Iraq and Syria on Friday, following a recent drone attack that killed three American soldiers at a remote base in Jordan.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday he had decided on a response to a drone strike that killed three American troops in Jordan, while insisting he did not want a wider war in the Middle East.

Facing growing pressure in a U.S. election year, Biden said he held Iran responsible for supplying the weapons to the people who carried out the deadly attack on a military base.

Iran denied U.S. and British accusations that it supported militant groups behind a drone strike in Jordan that killed three U.S. military personnel, Tehran's official IRNA news agency reported on Monday.

"These claims are made with specific political goals to reverse the realities of the region," IRNA quoted foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani as saying.

A drone attack on a base in Jordan killed three American troops and wounded more than 30 on Sunday, with U.S. President Joe Biden blaming Iran-backed militants and vowing to hold the perpetrators to account.