Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he made of the imminence of an attack from Abbs airfield on UK flagged vessels on 11 January 2024.

The two locations struck by the Royal Air Force on 11 January, a base at Bani and the airfield at Abbs, were both targeted because of their proven use by the Houthis as bases from which drones and cruise missiles had been launched over the Red Sea. This was part of a wider set of strikes conducted in concert with the US all intended to counter the very real threat demonstrably and repeatedly posed to shipping in the Red Sea. In each case, specific buildings associated with the drone and missile operations were successfully targeted. At Abbs, a cruise missile launcher caught in the open was also destroyed by our aircraft.