Donald Trump said he ordered a series of airstrikes in the capital of Yemen, Sana’a, on Saturday, promising to use “extremely deadly force” until Iran’s supported rebels stopped their shipping attack with an important maritime corridor.
Houthis reported a series of explosions on their territory on Saturday night. Images that move -transfer online show the plumes of black smoke in the area of the Sana’a Airport Complex, which includes a dazzling military facility. The extent of the injury is not yet clear.
“Our brave warriors are now conducting plane attacks on the basis, leaders, and missile defenses to protect American transmissions, wind, and naval assets, and to restore navigation freedom,” Trump said in a social media post.
“There is no terrorist force that will prevent American commercials and naval vessels from free sailing in the waterways in the world.”
He also warned Iran to stop supporting the rebel group, promising to hold the country “fully responsible” for its proxy actions.
At least 31 were killed and 101 others were injured in US strikes, mostly from women and children, Anees Al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-Run Health Ministry, told an updated toll on Sunday.
Another strike at a power station in the town of Dahyan in Sa’ada led to a power cut, Al-Masirah TV reported early on Sunday.
Airstrikes arrived a few days after Houthis said they would continue attacks on Israeli vehicles that sailed water from Yemen in response to Israeli’s block in Gaza. No Houti attack has been reported since then.
The houthi rebel targets more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, dipping two vessels and killing four sailors in their campaign targeting military and civilian ships after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in late 2023 to January this year, when a shocking ceasefire at Gaza has occurred.
The attacks highly raised the Houthis profile as they face economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting any dissent and home assistance workers in the middle of a long-time Yemen war that has torn the poorest countries in the Arab world.
The United States, Israel and Britain have previously hit the areas held by Houthi in Yemen. Israel’s military refused to comment.
The Houthi Media Office said US strikes hit “a residential neighborhood” in the northern Shouab district of Sana’a.
Saturday’s operation against Houthis was conducted only by the US, according to a US official. This was the first strike on Houthis based in Yemen under the second Trump administration, and it came after a period of relative quiet in the region.
The said widely based and initial planned missile strike against Houthis was conducted several times by the Biden Administration in response to Houthis’s frequent attacks against commercial and military vessels in the region.
The USS Harry S Truman Carrier Strike Group, which includes carrier, three Navy destroyers and a cruiser, is in the Red Sea and part of the mission. The USS Georgia Cruise Missile Submarine also operates in the region.
Trump announced the strikes as he spent the day at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“These relentless attacks are worth the US economy and the world of many billions of dollars while, at the same time, putting the risk to innocent lives,” Trump said.
Trump also warned Iran, Houthis’s main backer, that he had to immediately stop supporting for the group. He said if Iran threatened the United States, “America will hold you fully responsible and, we will not be good about it!”
The leading commander of Iran’s revolutionary guards reacts on Sunday by saying that Houthis is independent and obtains their own strategic and running decisions.
“We have warned our enemies that Iran will respond and destructive if they take their threats to action,” Hossein Salami told State Media.
Iran’s foreign ministry on Sunday condemned US strikes, saying they violated international law. Ministry’s spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei “strongly condemned the brutal US wind strike” in a statement, which criticized them with a “serious violation of UN Charter principles”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, encouraged the US to stop strikes against Yemen’s Houthis, a foreign ministry said Sunday. Lavrov spoke with the Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, by phone, the ministry said.
In the Associated Press and Reuters
