The army issued a statement on Sunday night, which was read out by spokesperson Yahya Saree, a day after the U.S. carried out dozens of airstrikes on Yemen.

Saree said that the American aircraft carrier and its warships were targeted in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles, and a drone in response to the “blatant aggression against our country," Yemen's Al Masirah TV reported. 

He said dozens were killed and injured after the U.S. conducted 47 airstrikes against Yemen, targeting multiple locations in provinces of Sana'a, Sa'ada, Al-Bayda, Hajjah, Dhamar, Ma'rib, and Al-Jawf.

“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea in retaliation to the aggression against our country,” the spokesperson further said.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced the “decisive and powerful military action” against Yemen on his social media platform Truth Social on Saturday night, threating the country with more attacks if it targets shipping in the high seas.

Last week, Yemen set a four-day ultimatum for Israel to lift its siege on Gaza and allow humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory or face a ban on its vessels passing through the Red and Arabian Seas. With the deadline expiring on Tuesday, Yemen pledged to go ahead with what it called a naval blockade on Israel.

Spokesperson Saree renewed that pledge on Sunday night despite the aggression by Israel’s staunch ally, the United States, which Yemen says is complicit in the regime's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza due to its military, financial, and military support for Israel.  

“The Yemeni Armed Forces will continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy and ban its ships in the declared zone of ​​operations” until the entry of all basic needs is allowed into the Gaza Strip, he said.

Israel imposed the siege on March 2, blocking the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, in order to pressure Hamas to accept the extension of the first phase of a ceasefire deal, which ended a day earlier.

Nearly two months after the Gaza war broke out, Yemen launched attacks on Israeli-linked vessels and later conducted missile and drone strikes on positions inside Israel, including in Tel Aviv, in an effort to pressure the regime to end its conflict in the Gaza Strip. Those Yemeni operations continued until a ceasefire came into force in Gaza on January 19 this year.