The United States launched a fresh airstrike on a Houthi rebel radar installation yesterday, a move described as a follow-up attack to Friday’s barrage across Yemen intended to degrade the rebel group’s ability to target ships in the Red Sea.

The destroyer USS Carney fired Tomahawk cruise missiles at the radar facility, US Central Command said in a statement.

Unlike the previous operation, in which the UK took part with support from other nations, including Australia, this one was conducted solely by the US.

Central Command called the strike ‘‘a follow-on action on a specific military target associated with strikes taken on January 12’’.

The latest strike came after the US Navy warned American-flagged vessels to steer clear of areas around Yemen in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden for 72 hours after the initial airstrikes.

Yemen’s Houthis have vowed fierce retaliation, raising the prospect of a wider conflict in a region already beset by Israel’s war in Gaza.

The latest attack showed the Biden administration would not wait for retaliation to press ahead with its campaign against the Houthis. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said his goal is to restore shipping through a vital trade waterway after the Iran-backed group’s earlier attacks forced many companies to route their ships around Africa.

The US and its allies had been bracing for a response after the Houthis vowed ‘‘imminent’’ attacks to target US and UK commercial vessels because of the earlier strikes.

Fears the turmoil in the Red Sea may continue unabated will force US President Joe Biden to consider how long to maintain strikes — or seek some other solution if they don’t succeed.

Israel has said it won’t let up its attacks on Gaza following Hamas’ October 7 incursion — the Houthis’ initial justification for their strikes.

Central Command said the strikes weren’t connected to Operation Prosperity Guardian, the multinational naval task force set up last month to protect ships in the Red Sea. Including that distinction shows some countries in the group are uncomfortable with the idea of retaliatory strikes and don’t want to be a target.

Before the allied attack on Friday, the Houthis had launched their own barrage of missiles and drones at ships in the Red Sea.

‘‘Neither side is looking to have an all-out war, and they are badly mismatched,’’ said Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at the Centre for International and Strategic Studies. ‘‘But that is not to say that the Houthis will stop attacking shipping, or that the United States will stop attacking the Houthis.’’

Earlier yesterday, the UK Maritime Trade Operations reported a new attack off Yemen, when a missile was fired towards a ship 140 kilometres south-east of Aden. The vessel reported no injuries or damage.

The US and Britain defended its strikes on Houthi targets as legal under international law and Biden told Iran not to get involved.

‘‘I’ve already delivered the message to Iran – they know not to do anything,’’ Biden told reporters. ‘‘We will make sure that we respond to the Houthis as they continue this outrageous behaviour, along with our allies.’’

US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the strikes on more than 60 targets in Yemen were consistent with international law and the UN Charter.

The operation was designed ‘‘to disrupt and degrade the Houthis’ ability to continue the reckless attacks against vessels and commercial shipping,’’ she said. More than 2000 ships have been forced to divert from the Red Sea since November.

Houthi leader Mohammed Ali al-Houthi told tens of thousands of supporters in Yemen’s capital Sanaa that counterattacks were ‘‘imminent’’, raising the prospect of a wider conflict in a region beset by Israel’s war in Gaza, and putting Western forces on high alert.

In Saada, the Houthis’ stronghold in north-west Yemen, protesters gathered, denouncing the US and Israel. Crowds also assembled and burnt US, British and Israeli flags in Tehran, Iran.

Iran condemned the attack in a statement from Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani. ‘‘Arbitrary attacks will have no result other than fuelling insecurity and instability in the region,’’ he said.