US hits Houthis as Trump orders ‘decisive military action’ over shipping threat
President vows to ‘use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective,’ blasts Biden’s ‘pathetically weak’ response to Red Sea attacks
The US launched military strikes against Yemen’s Houthis on Saturday over the group’s attacks against Red Sea shipping, with President Donald Trump warning, “Hell will rain down upon you” if the Houthis do not abandon their campaign.
Trump said he’d ordered “decisive and powerful military action” to end the threat posed to shipping.
“We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective,” he said.
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!”
The Houthi-run health ministry said at least nine civilians were killed and nine injured in US strikes on Yemen’s Sanaa.
Residents in Sanaa said the strikes hit a building in a stronghold of the militant group.
“The explosions were violent and shook the neighborhood like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children,” one of the residents, who gave his name as Abdullah Yahia, told Reuters.
The Houthis launched more than 100 attacks targeting shipping from November 2023, saying they were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
During that period, the group sank two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers in an offensive that disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to reroute to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa.
It also repeatedly attacked Israel with drones and ballistic missiles throughout the Gaza war, causing a number of deaths.
The previous US administration under President Joe Biden had sought to degrade the Houthis’ ability to attack vessels off its coast but limited the US actions.
US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Trump had authorized a more aggressive approach, which appeared to match his rhetoric on Saturday.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that the Houthis “have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones. “Biden’s response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going.”
The attack marks the first strikes to hit Yemen since the Gaza ceasefire deal took effect in January.
It also came a few days after the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red and Arabian seas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden, ending a period of relative calm starting in January with the Gaza ceasefire.
