Trump launches large-scale strikes on Yemen’s Houthis, at least 31 killed

WASHINGTON/ADEN, Yemen - US President Donald Trump launched large-scale military strikes against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis on March 15 over the group’s attacks against Red Sea shipping, killing at least 31 people at the start of a campaign expected to last many days.

Mr Trump also warned Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support for the group. He said if Iran threatened the US: “America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!”

The top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reacted on March 16, saying the Houthis are independent and take their own strategic and operational decisions.

“We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they take their threats into action,” Mr Hossein Salami told state media.

The unfolding strikes – which one official said would last days and maybe weeks – represent the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since Mr Trump took office in January.

It came as the US ramps up sanctions pressure on Tehran while trying to

bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme

.

“To all Houthi terrorists, your time is up, and your attacks must stop, starting today. If they don’t, hell will rain down upon you like nothing you have ever seen before!” Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

Mr Anees al-Asbahi, spokesman for the Houthi-run Health Ministry, said in an updated toll on March 16 that at least 31 people were killed and 101 injured in the US strikes, mostly women and children.

The Houthis’ political bureau described the attacks as a “war crime”.

“Our Yemeni armed forces are fully prepared to respond to escalation with escalation,” it said in a statement.

Residents in Sanaa said the strikes hit a building in a Houthi stronghold.

“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.

Strikes also targeted Houthi military sites in Yemen’s south-western city of Taiz, two witnesses in the area said on March 16.

Another strike on a power station in the town of Dahyan in Saada led to a power cut, Al-Masirah TV reported early on March 16. Dahyan is where Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the enigmatic leader of the Houthis, often meets his visitors.

The Houthis, an armed movement that took control of most of Yemen over the past decade, have launched

more than 100 attacks targeting shipping

from November 2023, disrupting global commerce and setting the US military on a costly campaign to intercept missiles and drones that burned through stocks of US air defences.

A Pentagon spokesperson said the Houthis have attacked US warships 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times since 2023. The Houthis say the attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war in Gaza with Hamas militants.

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 throughout, 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, said Mr Trump has authorised a more aggressive approach.

Strikes across Yemen

The strikes on March 15 were carried out in part by aircraft from the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, which is in the Red Sea, officials said.

The US military’s Central Command, which oversees troops in the Middle East, described the March 15 strikes as the start of a large-scale operation across Yemen.

“Houthi attacks on American ships and aircraft (and our troops!) will not be tolerated; and Iran, their benefactor, is on notice,” Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned strikes on Yemen as a “gross violation of the principles of the United Nations Charter and the fundamental rules of international law”, in a statement shared by state media.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the US government had “no authority, or business, dictating Iranian foreign policy”.

“End support for Israeli genocide and terrorism. Stop killing of Yemeni people,” he said in an X post early on March 16.

On March 11, 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 Mr Trump was delivered, seeking talks over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Ayatollah Khamenei on March 12 rejected holding negotiations with the US.

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

In 2024, Israeli strikes on Iranian facilities, including missile factories and air defences, in retaliation for Iranian missile and drone attacks, 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 per cent purity, close to the roughly 90 per cent 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.

In an apparent sign of US efforts to improve ties with Russia, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on March 15 with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to inform him about the US strikes in Yemen, the State Department said.

Russia has relied on Iranian-provided weaponry in its war in Ukraine, including missiles and drones, US and Ukrainian officials say. REUTERS