In the latest, the United States has escalated its strikes against Houthis (Yemen’s Iran-backed), with US President Donald Trump vowing to use lethal force against the rebels who have attacked international ships in the Red Sea in ‘solidarity’ with Gaza.
Several United States strikes in Yemen’s capital Sanaa and other areas have resulted in casualties with the militants also promising escalation as they face attacks since the war in Gaza started in October 2023.
Around midnight on Sunday, the US conducted overnight airstrikes on multiple targets in Yemen targeting the capital Sanaa, and other places, including the Houthi stronghold province of Sadaa.
‘Overnight US strikes killed at least 53 people, including five women and two children, and wounded more than 100 people’, said the Houthi-run Health Ministry, according to a Reuters report.
US President said that the Houthis must stop their attacks on international ships in the Red Sea. If they don’t, the US President vowed that ‘hell will rain down’ on them like ‘nothing you have seen before’.
On Sunday, US secretary of state Marco Rubio told CBS News that the strikes will continue until the Iran-backed militants ‘no longer have the capability’ to attack international ships.
Repeatedly, the Houthis have been targeting international shipping in the Red Sea, sinking two vessels, in what they say acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally.
Rubio stated that over the past 18 months, the Houthis had attacked the US Navy 174 times and targeted commercial shipping 145 times using “guided precision anti-ship weaponry.”
Last week, the Houthis stated they would renew attacks against Israeli vessels following Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month. But no ship has reported any attacks since then.
On Sunday, Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz told ABC that the strikes targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out.
He didn’t identify them. According to Marco Rubio, some Houthi facilities had been destroyed. Houthis did fire drones and one missile in response to the US attack, according to the Associated Press.
According to the report, the Houthis fired 11 drones and at least one missile over about 12 hours starting at about midnight local time in Yemen.
The carrier group remained unharmed though as ten of the drones were intercepted by the US Air Force fighter jets and one was intercepted by a Navy F/A-18 fighter jet. The missile fell into the water far from the ship.
Comments