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Prime Minister Keir Starmer quietly involved Britain’s armed forces in President Donald Trump’s bombardment of Yemen last weekend, Declassified can confirm.

A Royal Air Force (RAF) Voyager aerial refuelling tanker carried out two flights from Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus into the northern Red Sea to support the U.S.S Harry S. Truman.

The U.S. aircraft carrier launched multiple waves of air raids across Yemen on Saturday and Sunday in Trump’s largest military operation since returning to office.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump warned Yemen’s Houthi group [Ansar Allah]: “HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!”

Starmer participated in the raids on Yemen for the first time since Labour took power, although the RAF did not announce its involvement.

Publicly available flight tracking data shows that on Saturday, March 15, an RAF Voyager departed Akrotiri at 17:49 UTC and headed south into the Red Sea.

The refuelling tanker reached the area just south of Jeddah in waters off Saudi Arabia’s coast, where U.S. naval vessels were stationed, at around 19:20.

The Voyager KC2, with its capacity of more than a hundred tonnes of fuel, spent more than two hours at the location of the U.S.S Harry S. Truman.

USS Harry S. Truman underway in the Atlantic Ocean in September 2018. (U.S. Navy / Thomas Gooley /Public domain)

The first strikes in Yemen were recorded around 17:15 UTC and lasted for more than five hours.

A defence source confirmed to Declassified that “the U.K. provided routine allied air-to-air refuelling support to aid the self defence of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the region from which the strikes were launched.”

At least 27 civilians were reported killed and 22 injured in the first night of American airstrikes across seven of Yemen’s governorates.

Burning Children

The Houthis’ Al-Masirah TV aired footage of distressed and severely burnt children receiving medical care, apparent victims of strikes in the governorate of Sa’ada.

Strikes also targeted the building of the Houthis’ Supreme Political Council, known as the politburo, in the north of the capital, Sana’a.

U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz later claimed in an interview with ABC News that the strikes killed “multiple [Houthi] leaders.”

U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, center, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth meeting on Jan. 25, 2025. (The White House / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain)

The Voyager repeated its journey from Cyprus to the northern Red Sea the following day, on the evening of March 16.

The U.S. carried out a second night of strikes on Sunday, hitting the bridge of the Galaxy Leader merchant vessel – which the Houthis previously captured in November 2023 – docked in Hodeidah port, and the northern governorate of Al-Jawf.

By Monday, the Health Ministry in the Houthi-controlled capital Sana’a raised the death toll to 53, including five children and two women.

The strikes come weeks after demonstrators gathered outside the RAF’s base at Akrotiri to protest against Britain using Cyprus as a launch pad for military operations in the Middle East.

A Yemeni resident in the south of the country, not under Houthi control, told Declassified that sentiment in anti-Houthi territory has changed over the course of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Despite having fought the Houthis since 2015 there is growing support for their stance against Israel, the U.S. and, by extension, the U.K.

“Britain supporting America in these efforts is not surprising,” he said. “Here, in the south, we have our own history with the British of course,” he said, referring to southern Yemen’s period of being under British colonial rule.

“But, with or without the U.K. helping them, the U.S., they cannot get rid of the Houthis by force,” he added, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from authorities. “They are part of Yemeni society and the mixed fabric of the country’s politics. The support the Houthis will gain from resisting the U.S. and the U.K. will become more widespread the longer the airstrikes go on and increase with every civilian that is killed.”

Poseidon Archer

The U.S. strikes mark a notable escalation and the heaviest bombing in Yemen since the Saudi-led bombing campaign ended in March 2022.

However, the bombings are also a continuation of the joint air war launched under the banner of Operation Poseidon Archer by the Biden administration with the support of Britain’s then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Since January last year, the U.S. and U.K. have carried out more than 300 strikes, killing 21 civilians and injuring 64.

The last U.S. strikes were recorded hours before the ceasefire in Gaza came into effect on Jan. 19.

Britain has not officially admitted to bombing Yemen since May 2024, the deadliest month of bombing under the two previous U.S. and U.K. governments.

Sixteen civilians were reportedly killed and 35 injured that month, although it is unclear if the two strikes resulting in mass civilian casualties last May were carried out by British fighter jets or American strikes.

The Houthis began their campaign against “all ships in the Red Sea bound for Israeli ports, regardless of their nationality” in November 2023, in response to Israel’s war on Gaza.

Despite the U.S.-U.K. bombing campaign, the Houthis carried out almost 100 attacks against merchant vessels, including the sinking of the Rubymar in March 2024 and later setting two vessels ablaze, killing three merchant mariners.

MV Rubymar sunk in the Red Sea on March 2, 2024. (U.S. Central Command / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain)

The group also carried out scores of ballistic missile and drone attacks against Israel, which has responded with its own airstrikes in Yemen since July 2024. Further attacks by the Houthis repeatedly targeted a Royal Navy destroyer and the U.S. Navy.

The last recorded Houthi attack on international shipping in the Red Sea was the targeting of an Israeli bulk carrier on Nov. 18.

In the following two months the Houthis focused their attacks on the U.S.S Harry S. Truman carrier strike group.

But, the ceasefire in Gaza in January resulted in a de-facto ceasefire in Yemen. There had been no Houthi attacks or U.S.-U.K. strikes since the ceasefire came into effect on Jan. 19, — before Trump came into office.

Solidarity With Gaza

However Houthi leader, Abdul Malek al-Houthi, repeatedly warned in his weekly addresses that attacks would resume if Israel breached the ceasefire.

Israel’s recent blockade on Gaza, preventing food, aid and medical teams from entering the strip, prompted an ultimatum from the Houthis. On March 7 the Houthis gave Israel four days to lift the Gaza siege.

When the deadline passed on March 11, Houthi armed forces announced the resumption of their ban on Israeli-linked vessels travelling through the Red Sea, a ban they said would last until Israel allowed humanitarian aid into Gaza.

While the U.S. administration, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, claimed the strikes were to stop Houthi attacks on global shipping, no merchant vessels had been targeted by the Houthis for four months.

The Houthi politburo accused the U.S. of conducting strikes on behalf of Israel and Houthi armed forces responded on Sunday by launching more than a dozen ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones at the U.S.S Harry S. Truman, projectiles that were all intercepted, according to the U.S.

Houthi spokesman, Mohammed Abdulsalam posted on X: “The U.S. air raids represent a return to the militarisation of the Red Sea, which is the real threat to international navigation in the region.”

Original article: Declassified UK via Consortium News