US launches major strikes on Houthis over Red Sea threat
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The news: The United States launched large-scale military strikes against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, killing at least 31 people at the start of a campaign expected to last weeks.
In a social media post President Donald Trump said the Saturday (Sunday AEDT) strikes were in response to Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping and warned Iran to halt its support for the group.
The attacks, reportedly carried out by fighter jets from the USS Harry S Truman, Air Force drones and attack planes, hit radars, air defences and missile and drone systems, The New York Times said.
The strikes also targeted Houthi leaders’ homes in Sana'a, Yemen's capital, and the town of Sa’dah, the group’s mountainous home base, The Wall Street Journal reported citing unnamed sources briefed by the Trump administration.
The numbers: It is the US biggest military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office in January. The Houthi-run health ministry reported 31 killed and 191 injured, mostly women and children, Reuters reported.
An unnamed US official told Reuters the campaign was expected to last weeks, while The New York Times reported that US officials said the strikes could escalate depending on Houthi retaliation.
The context: The Houthis, backed by Iran, had launched scores of attacks on ships since November 2023, disrupting global trade in response to Israel’s war in Gaza.
The militant group had largely halted attacks after a Gaza ceasefire in January but announced they would resume targeting Israeli ships following Israel’s blockade on Gaza aid this month, ending a period of relative calm.
The US has previously responded with counterstrikes, but Trump has now escalated military action and warned Iran against supporting the group.
The strikes follow Trump’s redesignation of the Houthis as a terrorist organisation in January, reversing a Biden-era decision to lift the label to facilitate Yemen peace talks. Last year, Biden reclassified the group under a less severe terrorist designation – a “specially designated global terrorist” organisation - after its attacks on US warships in the Red Sea.
What they said: Houthi officials condemned the US strikes as a “war crime” and vowed to retaliate. "Our Yemeni armed forces are fully prepared to respond to escalation with escalation," the Houthis’ political bureau said in a statement to Reuters.
Hossein Salami, the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards released a statement on Sunday denying directing the Houthis, saying the Houthis are independent and take their own decisions.
"We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they take their threats into action," Salami told state media.
Trump social media post said Houthi assaults “will not be tolerated” and threatened “overwhelming lethal force.”
The sources: Donald Trump's social media post , The New York Times, Reuters
