US steps up ‘unrelenting’ campaign against Houthis in Yemen

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The US launched air strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen in the early hours of Monday as the Trump administration steps up what it has warned will be an “unrelenting” campaign against the Iranian-backed militants.

Houthi-controlled Al Masirah television channel said Monday’s attacks targeted Hodeida, a strategic Red Sea port that is the main gateway for goods into northern Yemen, and al-Jawf province.

It came after Donald Trump on Saturday ordered the biggest military operation of his second term.

The Houthis have vowed to respond to the US attacks. In the early hours of Monday, the militant group claimed to have carried out two missile and drone attacks in 24 hours that targeted the USS Harry S Truman, an American aircraft carrier.

The US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain and is responsible for maritime security in the Middle East, declined to comment on the Houthis’ claims. But a US defence official said the ship was not damaged and remained operational.

The US Central Command posted a video on X in the early hours of Monday showing a fighter jet taking off from an aircraft carrier. In the post, US forces said they “continue operations against Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists”.

The US president on Saturday warned that “all hell will rain down upon” the Houthis if they continue to attack shipping in the Red Sea.

The Houthi-controlled health ministry said at least 53 people, including several children, were killed in a wave of US strikes on Saturday across Houthi-controlled northern Yemen, including hitting targets in the capital Sana’a.

Trump ordered the attacks against the Houthis days after the group, which controls most of Yemen’s populous north, threatened to resume attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The Houthis launched scores of attacks on merchant vessels and US navy ships in the Red Sea starting more than a year ago, saying they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians as Israel carried out its ferocious offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

The assaults severely disrupted traffic through one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes and continued despite US, UK and Israeli air strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen.

The Houthis halted their campaign after Israel and Hamas agreed to a fragile ceasefire in January under which the Palestinian militants committed to releasing hostages seized in their October 7 2023 assault on Israel.

But the Houthis warned they would resume their attacks on shipping after Israel blocked the delivery of all aid into Gaza in a bid to pressure Hamas to accept a revised proposal for the second phase of the ceasefire deal.

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures that the military campaign against the Houthis would be “unrelenting” unless the militants agreed to stop attacking ships and shooting at American drones.

The Houthis have controlled Sana’a and most of the country’s north for a decade since ousting the Yemeni government as the impoverished Arab state descended into civil war.

The conflict drew in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which led to an Arab coalition that intervened to fight the Houthis in March 2015.

But despite a sustained bombing campaign by the Saudi-led coalition, the Houthis retained their grip on power. In 2022, the UN brokered a fragile truce to the civil war as Riyadh sought to extract itself from the conflict.

The US, Israel and Gulf states accuse Iran of supplying the Houthis with missiles and drones as well as intelligence.

Trump on Saturday also warned Tehran against supporting the Yemeni rebels, which are part of Iranian-backed militants that make up the so-called “axis of resistance”.