21 killed in Yemen as Trump launches strikes against Houthis

The first US strikes against Yemen’s Houthis since President Donald Trump took office in January killed at least 21 people, the rebels said Sunday.

The Houthis, who have attacked Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war, said children were among those killed by the intense barrage of strikes.

An AFP photographer in the rebel-held capital Sanaa heard three explosions and saw plumes of smoke rising from a residential district, and strikes were also reported in Yemen’s northern Saada region, a Houthi stronghold.

“Nine civilians were killed and nine others were injured, most of them seriously,” the Houthis’ health and environment ministry said in a statement on their Saba news agency, reporting the strikes on Sanaa.

A strike in the Saada region killed at least 10 people and wounded others, according to the Houthi Ansarollah website, condemning what it called “US-British aggression” and Washington’s “criminal brutality”.

A separate strike on a house in Saada’s Alshaaf district killed two people, Ansarollah said.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM), which posted images of fighters taking off from an aircraft carrier and a bomb demolishing a building compound, said “precision strikes” were launched to “defend American interests, deter enemies, and restore freedom of navigation”.

There was no immediate comment from British authorities.

Trump, in a post on social media, vowed to “use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective”, citing the Houthis’ threats against Red Sea shipping.

Trump also warned Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support to 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 unfolding US strikes represent the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office in January, and came as the United States ramps up sanctions pressure on Tehran while trying to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme.

“The explosions were violent and shook the neighbourhood 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 deadly war in Gaza.

Iran’s other allies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have been severely weakened since the start of the conflict. Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, who was closely aligned with Tehran, was overthrown by rebels in December.

But during this period, Yemen’s Houthis have remained resilient and on the offensive, sinking two vessels, seizing another and killing at least four seafarers in an offensive that disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa.

The previous US administration of 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 condition of anonymity, say Trump has authorised a more aggressive approach.

The strikes on Saturday were carried out in part by aircraft from the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, which is in the Red Sea, officials said.

Trump held out the prospect of far more devastating military action against Yemen.

“The Houthi attack on American vessels will not be tolerated. We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective,” Trump wrote.

On Tuesday, 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.

The US attacks came just days after a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from Trump was delivered, seeking talks over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Khamenei on Wednesday rejected holding negotiations with the United States.

Still, Tehran is increasingly concerned that mounting public anger over economic hardships could erupt into mass protests, four Iranian officials told Reuters.

Last year, Israeli strikes on Iranian facilities, including missile factories and air defences, in retaliation for Iranian missile and drone attacks amid the war in Gaza, reduced Tehran’s conventional military capabilities, according to US officials.

Iran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon. However, it is dramatically accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90 percent weapons-grade level, the UN nuclear watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency – has warned.

Western states say there is no need to enrich uranium to such a high level under any civilian programme and that no other country has done so without producing nuclear bombs. Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful, and has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon.