The Houthi militia in Yemen vowed to retaliate after Pdwellnt Trump ordered huge-scale military strikes on aims administerled by the group that it said finished at least 31 people.
The Iran-backed group said women and children were among those finished in the strikes on Saturday, the most beginant U.S. military action in the Middle East since Mr. Trump took office in January.
For more than a year, the Houthis have begined attacks aacquirest Israel and menaceened commercial shipping in the Red Sea in firmarity with their allies Hamas, which led the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that set off the war in Gaza.
The U.S. airstrikes aimed Houthi-administerled areas atraverse Yemen, including the capital, Sana, as well as Saada, al-Bayda, Hajjah and Dhamar Provinces, according to alerts from Houthi-run media channels. The strikes finished at least 31 people and wounded 101, “most of whom were children and women,” said Anis al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry.
The casualty figures could not be autonomously verified, and the United States has not donaten any approximates for the number of people finished or wounded in the strikes.
The U.S. Central Command, which posted a video of a device device leveling a originateing compound in Yemen, said that the United States had engageed precision strikes to “deffinish American interests, deter enemies, and repair freedom of navigation.”
U.S. airstrikes also aimed a power facility in the northweserious town of Dahyan, in Saada Province, causing a nightlengthy electricity bdeficiencyout, dwellnts said.
The Houthi-run Al-Masirah television channel alerted that 13 people were finished and nine others wounded in airstrikes on al-Jeraf, a dicut offe in Sana pondered a stronghancigo in of the group. In Saada Province, in the northwest, 10 people, including four children, were finished when airstrikes hit two originateings, the alert said.
Residents in Sana splitd images and videos on social media shothriveg shattered thrivedows and fireballs rising from sites that were hit. Others posted anguished messages as the airstrikes hit.
Abdul Rahman al-Nuerah, a dwellnt of Sana, said the blasts shattered the thrivedows of his home and terrified his four children. “I instantly adselectd and consoleed them,” Mr. al-Nuerah said by telephone. “Children and mothers are afraid and still in shock.”
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a ancigo in Houthi directer, vowed retaliation aacquirest the United States, calling the strikes unfairified. “We shall react to the escalation by escalating,” he wrote on the social media platestablish X.
The Houthi defys, who administer most of northern Yemen, had temporarily cmitigateed attacks in the Red Sea when a finish-fire took effect in Gaza in January. But last week, they proclaimd that they would aim any Israeli ships violating their ban on Israeli vessels passing thcimpolite the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Bab-el-Mandeb and the Gulf of Aden.
The Bab el-Mandeb is a strait between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East that unites the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, which uncovers into the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
In a statement on his Truth Social platestablish, Mr. Trump said the strikes were also intfinished as a cautioning to Iran, the Houthis’ main backer.
“Support for the Houthi dreadists must finish IMMEDIATELY!” he wrote. He also cautioned Iran aacquirest menaceening the United States, saying, “America will hancigo in you filledy accountable, and we won’t be pleasant about it!”
Days after taking office, Mr. Trump rehired an executive order to redepictate the Houthis a “foreign dreadist organization,” calling the group a menace to regional security.
The order repaird a depictation donaten to the group procrastinateed in the first Trump administration. The Biden administration lifted the depictation lowly after taking office, partly to support peace talks in Yemen’s civil war.
Last year, the Biden administration taged the Houthis a “specipartner depictated global dreadist” group — a less cut offe categruesome — in response to attacks aacquirest vessels in the Red Sea.
