US piles pressure on Yemen’s Houthis with fresh airstrikes
Iran-backed terror group says Red Sea port city of Hodeidah and Al Jawf governorate north of capital Sanaa targeted; US official says campaign could continue for weeks
The United States carried out new airstrikes on Yemen on Monday, the Houthis’ Al Masirah TV said, expanding the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since US President Donald Trump took office in January.
Responding to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement’s threats to international shipping, the US launched a new wave of airstrikes on Saturday. On Monday, the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah and Al Jawf governorate north of the capital Sanaa were targeted, Al Masirah said.
At least 53 people have been killed in the attacks, Anees Alsbahi, a spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry, said on Sunday. Five children and two women were among the victims and 98 have been hurt, Alsbahi added on X.
The Houthis, whose terror movement has taken control of most of Yemen over the past decade, have launched scores of attacks on ships off its coast since November 2023, disrupting global commerce. The US campaign to intercept missiles and drones has burned through stocks of US air defenses.
The strikes, which one US official told Reuters might continue for weeks, come as Washington ramps up sanctions pressure on Iran while trying to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear program.
Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said on Sunday that his group would target US ships in the Red Sea as long as the US continues its attacks on Yemen.
“If they continue their aggression, we will continue the escalation,” he said in a televised speech.
The Houthi movement’s political bureau described the US attacks as a “war crime.” Moscow urged Washington to stop them.
The Houthis’ military spokesman, without providing evidence, said in a televised statement early on Monday that the group had launched a second attack against the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea.
US warplanes shot down 11 Houthi drones on Sunday, none of which came close to the Truman, a US official told Reuters. US forces also tracked a missile that splashed down off the coast of Yemen, the official said.
Israel has weakened a large part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” in the Middle East, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Palestinian terror group Hamas, after the latter invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, taking 251 hostages and sparking war. Hezbollah began attacking Israel the next day.
In the ensuing war, Israel decimated the leadership of both terror groups, eventually reaching a ceasefire with Hezbollah in November and with Hamas in January. However, the truce with Hamas has stalled amid mutual accusations of violations.
Top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders were killed in the fighting, with the fall of another Iranian ally, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in December dealing a further massive blow to the Islamic Republic.
But the Houthis — resilient mountain fighters who defied a Saudi-led bombing campaign in a civil war for years — are still standing, along with pro-Iranian militias in Iraq.
US warning
The Houthis launched scores of attacks on shipping after Hamas began the war with Israel in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians. They also directly attacked Israel with missiles and drones. Israel retaliated to the attacks with several strikes on Houthi resources in Yemen.
Though they halted their actions when the ceasefire with Hamas began in January, the Houthis said last week they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea if Israel did not lift a block on aid entering Gaza. Israel said it applied the measure to pressure Hamas to continue to release hostages.
Trump, in addition to launching attacks against the Houthis, warned Iran that it needed to immediately halt support for the group. If Iran threatened the US, he said, “America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!”
In response, Hossein Salami, the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said the Houthis made their own decisions.
“We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they carry out their threats,” he told state media.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures”: “The minute the Houthis 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.”
He said reopening freedom of navigation was a core national interest for the US and that Iran had been “enabling the Houthis for far too long.”
“They better back off,” he said.
The Times of Israel Community.