US President Donald Trump launched military strikes against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis yesterday over the group’s attacks against Red Sea shipping, warning “hell will rain down upon you” if the Houthis do not abandon their campaign.
Trump also warned Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support to the group. He said if Iran threatened the US “America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!”
The unfolding strikes represent the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office in January, and came as the US ramps up sanctions pressure on Tehran while trying to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme.
At least nine civilians were killed and nine injured in US strikes on Yemen’s Sana’a, according to the Houthi-run health ministry.
The Houthis’ political bureau said in a statement the attacks, which it described as a “war crime”, will not go unanswered.
The Houthis have launched more than 100 attacks targeting shipping since November 2023, a campaign they say is in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. Iran’s other allies, Hamas in Gaza and Hizbollah in Lebanon, have been severely weakened by Israel since the start of the Gaza conflict.
But throughout, Yemen’s Houthis have remained resilient and on often the offensive, sinking two vessels, seizing another and killing at least four seafarers in an offensive that disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa.
The previous US administration of President Joe Biden had sought to degrade the Houthis’ ability to attack vessels off its coast but limited the US actions.
US officials say Trump has authorised a more aggressive approach.
The strikes yesterday were carried out in part by fighter aircraft from the Harry S Truman aircraft carrier, which is in the Red Sea, officials said.
The US military’s Central Command, which oversees troops in the Middle East, described yesterday’s strikes as the start of a large-scale operation across Yemen.
“Houthi attacks on American ships and aircraft (and our troops!) will not be tolerated; and Iran, their benefactor, is on notice,” Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X. “Freedom of Navigation will be restored.”
Trump held out the prospect of far more devastating military action against Yemen.
“The Houthi attack on American vessels will not be tolerated. We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective,” Trump wrote.
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