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At least 53 killed in US strikes on Yemen's Houthis as Trump vows to end Red Sea attacks

The United States and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are both vowing escalation a day after US President Donald Trump launched air strikes to deter rebel attacks on Red Sea shipping vessels, which the White House claims killed senior rebel leaders. Washington also warned Tehran to stop backing the Houthis.

The first US strikes against Yemen's Houthis since President Donald Trump took office in January killed at least 53 people and wounded 101 others, the rebels said Sunday, as Washington warned Iran to stop backing the group. 

The Huthi health ministry said most of the dead were women and children.

 "In response to this aggression, the armed forces conducted a military operation... targeting the US aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and its accompanying warships", the group said in a statement.

President Trump observing military strikes against the Houthis.
President Trump, in a photo released by the White House, looks on as the strikes are launched. Photo: white house/Reuters

The Huthis said they had launched 18 missiles and a drone at the American ships.

There was no immediate comment from the United States about the claim.

Saturday's American attacks on the rebel-held capital Sanaa as well as Saada, Al-Bayda and Radaa killed and wounded mostly women and children, Huthi health ministry spokesperson Anis al-Asbahi said earlier.

US officials on Sunday vowed further strikes until the Huthis stop attacking Red Sea shipping.

The United Nations urged both sides to cease "all military activity".

Before their claimed attack on the carrier, the rebels had carried out no attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since January 19, when a ceasefire began in the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, however, the Huthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli shipping over Israel's halting of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

In a televised address late Sunday, rebel leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi added US cargo ships to its targets "as long as it continues its aggression". He called for a million Yemenis to march on Monday in defiance.

"If the American aggression against our country continues, we will move to additional escalatory options," he said.

 

Yemeni children at a makeshift camp for people displaced by the conflict. © Khaled Ziad, AFP
Yemeni children at a makeshift camp for people displaced by the conflict. © Khaled Ziad, AFP

 

'Overwhelming force' 

US National Security Advisor Michael Waltz told ABC News that Saturday's strikes "targeted multiple Huthi leaders and took them out".

He told Fox News: "We just hit them with overwhelming force and put Iran on notice that enough is enough."

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth vowed an "unrelenting" missile campaign until the Huthi attacks stop.

"I want to be very clear, this campaign is about freedom of navigation and restoring deterrence," Hegseth said in a televised Fox Business interview.

"The minute the Huthis say, 'We'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your drones,' this campaign will end. But until then, it will be unrelenting."

CENTCOM, the US Central Command, said it had carried out a "large scale operation" against the Huthis.

Witnesses in Yemen, a country that has endured years of war, said Sunday they were taken aback by the attack's intensity.

Footage on Huthi media showed children, including a dazed girl with blackened legs wrapped in bandages, and a woman being treated in hospital.

One father of two, who gave his name as Ahmed, told AFP: "I've been living in Sanaa for 10 years, hearing shelling throughout the war. By God, I've never experienced anything like this before," he said.

Trump, posting on social media, vowed to "use overwhelming lethal force" to end the Huthi attacks, which the rebels say are in solidarity with Palestinians during the Gaza war.

"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 said.

"To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY!" Trump added.

The Huthis, who had long complained of marginalisation, seized Sanaa in September 2014, forcing the government to flee south and leaving the rebels controlling large parts of Yemen.

A Saudi-led coalition in March 2015 began a military campaign against the Huthis that the Yemen Data Project, an independent tracker, said involved more than 25,000 air raids.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the deaths in Saturday's US strikes and said Washington had "no authority" to dictate Tehran's foreign policy.

 'Fully prepared' 

The Huthis' political bureau said its "forces are fully prepared to confront escalation with escalation".

 They have launched scores of drone and missile attacks on ships in the two key waterways, and have previously targeted US warships.

 

Yemenis in rebel-held Sanaa rallied this month against Israel, vowing more attacks. © Mohammed Huwais, AFP
Yemenis in rebel-held Sanaa rallied this month against Israel, vowing more attacks. © Mohammed Huwais, AFP

 

The Yemen Conflict Observatory database set up by ACLED, a non-profit monitor, shows 136 Huthi attacks against warships, commercial vessels, Israeli and other targets since October 19, 2023.

The vital trade route normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic, but the Huthi attacks forced many companies into costly detours around southern Africa.

 The Palestinian group Hamas, which has praised Huthi support, branded the US strikes "a stark violation of international law and an assault on the country's sovereignty and stability".

The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, said: "Iran will not wage war, but if anyone threatens, it will give appropriate, decisive and conclusive responses."

The United States had already launched several rounds of strikes on Huthi targets.

 Israel has also struck Yemen, most recently in December, after Huthi missile fire towards Israeli territory.

 Fighting in Yemen's own war has largely been on hold since a 2022 ceasefire, but the promised peace process has stalled in the face of the Huthi attacks on shipping.

 The war killed hundreds of thousands either directly or indirectly through causes such as disease, plunging Yemen into one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP)

 

 

 

Source: France 24

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