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Trump orders airstrikes on Yemen in warning to Houthis over shipping route Airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthis may continue for weeks, US officials say
(about 5 hours later)
At least 31 people killed in strikes on Sana’a and Sa’ada on Saturday, says Houthi-run health ministry At least 31 killed and up to 100 injured after Trump orders strikes on Sana’a and Saada in response to shipping attacks
Donald Trump said he ordered a series of airstrikes on Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, on Saturday, promising to use “overwhelming lethal force” until Iranian-backed Houthi rebels cease their attacks on shipping along a vital maritime corridor. US officials have said airstrikes launched by Donald Trump against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis may continue for weeks, after a first round on Saturday killed at least 31 people and injured up to 100 more.
The Houthis reported a series of explosions in their territory on Saturday evening. Images circulating online show plumes of black smoke over the area of the Sana’a airport complex, which includes a sprawling military facility. The extent of the damage was not yet clear. The strikes, which aim to punish the Houthis for their attacks against Red Sea shipping, are Trump’s first such use of US military might in the region since he took power in January.
“Our brave Warfighters are right now carrying out aerial attacks on the terrorists’ bases, leaders, and missile defenses to protect American shipping, air, and naval assets, and to restore Navigational Freedom,” Trump said in a social media post. The US president on Saturday warned Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, to immediately halt support for the group and said if Iran threatened the US: “America will hold you fully accountable and we won’t be nice about it!”
“No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World.” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: “To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!”
He also warned Iran to stop supporting the rebel group, promising to hold the country “fully accountable” for the actions of its proxy. The Houthis say they have targeted international shipping in solidarity with Palestinians and Hamas, which is also backed by Iran.
At least 31 were killed and 101 others injured in the US strikes, mostly from women and children, Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry, said in an updated toll on Sunday. The group has also launched missiles, drones and rockets at Israel since the beginning of the war in Gaza.
Another strike on a power station in the town of Dahyan in Sa’ada led to a power cut, Al-Masirah TV reported early on Sunday. The top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards responded on Sunday by saying the Houthis were independent and took their own strategic and operational decisions.
The airstrikes come a few days after the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli vessels sailing in waters off Yemen in response to Israel’s blockade on Gaza. There have been no Houthi attacks reported since then. “We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they take their threats into action,” Maj Gen Hossein Salami told state media.
The Houthi rebels have targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors during their campaign targeting military and civilian ships after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in late 2023 until January of this year, when a tenuous ceasefire in Gaza took effect. Washington has already ramped up sanctions pressure on Iran while trying to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme. A key question for regional observers is whether Trump may use military means against Tehran, possibly after pressure from Israel.
The attacks greatly raised the Houthis’ profile as they faced economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting any dissent and aid workers at home amid Yemen’s decade-long stalemated war that has torn apart the Arab world’s poorest nation. The US military’s central command, which oversees troops in the Middle East, described Saturday’s strikes as the start of a large-scale operation across Yemen. The strikes on Saturday were carried out in part by fighter aircraft from the Harry S Truman aircraft carrier, which is in the Red Sea, officials said.
The United States, Israel and Britain have previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen. Israel’s military declined to comment. The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, wrote on X: “Houthi attacks on American ships & aircraft (and our troops!) will not be tolerated; and Iran, their benefactor, is on notice.”
The Houthi media office said the US strikes hit “a residential neighborhood” in Sana’a’s northern district of Shouab. US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump had authorised a more aggressive approach.
The Saturday operation against the Houthis was conducted solely by the US, according to a US official. It was the first strike on the Yemen-based Houthis under the second Trump administration, and it comes after a period of relative quiet in the region. The Houthis, an armed movement who have taken control of most of Yemen over the past decade, are seen as key actors in the “axis of resistance”, a loose regional coalition of militant groups built up by Iran over recent years to project force and pressure Israel.
Such broad-based and pre-planned missile strikes against the Houthis were carried out multiple times by the Biden administration in response to frequent attacks by the Houthis against commercial and military vessels in the region. The group is seen as the only member of the coalition not to have been significantly weakened by Israel during the wars in Gaza since October 2023 and the short conflict in Lebanon last year. Both Hamas and Hezbollah, once the most powerful member, have suffered significant losses.
The USS Harry S Truman carrier strike group, which includes the carrier, three navy destroyers and one cruiser, is in the Red Sea and was part of the mission. The USS Georgia cruise missile submarine has also been operating in the region. Most of the casualties in the US strikes were women and children, said Anees al-Asbahi, the spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry, in an updated toll on Sunday.
Trump announced the strikes as he spent the day at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Houthis’ political bureau described the attacks as a “war crime”. “Our Yemeni armed forces are fully prepared to respond to escalation with escalation,” it said in a statement.
“These relentless assaults have cost the US and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk,” Trump said. People in Sana’a said the strikes hit a building in a Houthi stronghold. A man who gave his name as Abdullah Yahia told Reuters: “The explosions were violent and shook the neighbourhood like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children.”
Trump also warned Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support for the group. He said if Iran threatened the United States, “America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!” Strikes also targeted Houthi military sites in Yemen’s south-western city of Taiz, two witnesses in the area said on Sunday. Another strike, on a power station in the town of Dahyan in Saada, led to a power cut, al-Masirah TV reported early on Sunday. Dahyan is where Abdulmalik al-Houthi, the leader of the Houthis, often meets his visitors.
The top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reacted on Sunday by saying the Houthis are independent and take their own strategic and operational decisions. A Pentagon spokesperson said the Houthis had attacked US warships 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times since 2023.
“We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they take their threats into action,” Hossein Salami told state media. The previous administration in Washington, under Joe Biden, had sought to degrade the Houthis’ ability to attack vessels off Yemen’s coast but limited US actions.
Iran’s foreign ministry on Sunday condemned the US strikes, saying they violated international law. Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei “strongly condemned the brutal air strikes by the US” in a statement, denouncing them a “gross violation of the principles of the UN charter”. In a statement shared by state media, Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the strikes on Yemen as a “gross violation of the principles of the United Nations charter and the fundamental rules of international law”.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, urged the US to cease strikes against Yemen’s Houthis, the foreign ministry said on Sunday. Lavrov spoke to the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, by telephone, the ministry said. The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the US government had “no authority, or business, dictating Iranian foreign policy”. “End support for Israeli genocide and terrorism. Stop killing of Yemeni people,” he said in a post on X early on Sunday.
With Associated Press and Reuters On Tuesday, the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Gulf of Aden, ending a period of relative calm starting in January with the Gaza ceasefire.
The US attacks came days after the delivery of a letter from Trump to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, seeking talks over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Khamenei on Wednesday rejected holding negotiations with the US.
Last year, Israeli strikes on Iranian facilities, including missile factories and air defences, in retaliation for Iranian missile and drone attacks, reduced Tehran’s conventional military and air defence capabilities, according to US officials.
Iran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon but has dramatically accelerated the enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the weapons-grade level of approximately 90%, the UN nuclear watchdog has warned.
Reuters contributed to this report