coverage of the breaking news out of the middle east and the u.s. strikes continues with ac 360. good evening. thanks for joining us. we begin tonight with breaking news. american-led air strikes in one of the most volatile hot spots in the world right now. mitts is some of the first video of explosions tonight in yemen s just north of the capital. iranian backed houthi fighters from yemen have been attacking commercial ships in the nearby red sea. there s been dozens of attacks. tonight u.s. and british forcevise struck back using air and naval assets. both surface ships and submarines with one houthi official moments ago saying multiple cities had been hit. cnn s oren leiberman at the pentagon for us tonight. m.j. lee at the white house where the president has just weighed in. i want to start at the pentagon. oren, what do we learn so far about the targets that have been hit? reporter: more than a dozen different targets were hit by u.s. aircraft and assets. it was also
u.s. aircraft and assets. it was also submarines that took part in this launching tomahawk attack and cruise missiles. they included also storage and launch sites for ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, as well as uavs. those three types of weapons are significant. those are the types of weapons the houthivise used to attack and frankly to try to terrorize international shipping in the red sea. it is because of that threat to one of the world s most critical international waterways that first a number of major shipping companies have chosen to avoid the red sea. but, second, that the u.s. setup what it called operation prosperity guardian, a multinational coalition to defend ships there. that was purely defensive. now, after warning repeatedly the houthis to stop these attacks, the u.s., the u.k., and backed by other countries decided they needed to take offensive action, carrying out these strikes against once again more than a dozen houthi targets across several cities in yemen. thi
that bashar al-assad has given the green light for his military to use chlorine gas again. twice in the last couple of years the syrian government has used sarin against civilians and twice the u.s. has responded launching tomahawk strikes and taking out sarin airfields. some are argued that assad and allies are no longer afraid of the u.s. response. past u.s. strikes have not really altered the directions or outcome of the war. it s russia pointing the finger at the rebels or is it saying it s them using the chlorine not assad muddying the water before it s even started. shep? shepard: u.s. also warned about syrians use of conventional weapons against its own people. yeah. and so often the case that is the chemical weapons which get all the headlines but it s the conventional weapons that do all the killing. that s what we are seeing already. this offensive started in a big way with russian air support and warplanes bombing as well. over the weekend over two dozen civilians were k