US vows 'unrelenting' campaign to halt Huthi ship attacks

US vows 'unrelenting' campaign to halt Huthi ship attacks
by AFP Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Mar 16, 2025

US officials on Sunday vowed further strikes in Yemen until the Huthi rebels decide to end their attacks on Red Sea shipping, while also threatening action against the group's backer Iran.

In a wave of strikes on Saturday, the first against the rebel group since US President Donald Trump returned to office in January, several Huthi leaders were killed, the White House said.

The airstrikes "actually targeted multiple Huthi leaders and took them out," National Security Advisor Michael Waltz told ABC News.

He added that the United States "will hold not only the Huthis accountable, but we're going to hold Iran, their backers, accountable as well."

"And if that means their targeting ships that they have put in to help, their Iranian trainers... other things that they have put in to help the Huthis attack the global economy, those targets will be on the table too."

In a separate appearance on Fox News, he said the strikes "put Iran on notice that enough is enough."

The US strikes killed at least 31 people and wounded 101, the Yemeni rebel group's health ministry said Sunday.

The Tehran-backed group, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, staunchly oppose Israel and the United States and say the shipping attacks are in protest of Israel's war in Gaza.

The Huthis have launched scores of drone and missile attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since the outbreak of the war, which was spurred by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

US warships have been attacked 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times since 2023, according to the Pentagon, putting a major strain on a sea route that normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic.

Trump, in a lengthy Truth Social post Saturday announcing the latest attacks, warned Huthi leaders that "YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON'T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!"

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth echoed that message Sunday, vowing an "unrelenting" missile campaign until the Huthi attacks stop.

"I want to be very clear, this campaign is about freedom of navigation and restoring deterrence," Hegseth said in a televised Fox Business interview.

"The minute the Huthis say, 'We'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your drones,' this campaign will end. But until then, it will be unrelenting."

Yemen has seen over a decade of civil war, with the Huthis controlling the capital Sanaa since 2014.

Hegseth, in blunt terms, said the United States was not seeking to get involved in a long Middle East war.

"We don't care what happens in the Yemeni civil war," he said.

"This is about stopping the shooting at assets in that critical waterway, to reopen freedom of navigation, which is a core national interest of the United States."

Trump last month sent a letter to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proposing nuclear talks and saying that in the absence of a deal the matter could be handled "militarily."

Tehran chafed at that suggestion, saying it would not negotiate while being "threatened."

Waltz, in his ABC interview, said flatly: "Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. All options are on the table to ensure it does not have one."

He added: "They can either hand it over and give it up in a way that is verifiable, or they can face a whole series of other consequences, but either way, we cannot have a world with the ayatollahs with their finger on the nuclear button."

Iran-backed Yemen rebels say attacked US carrier after air strikes
Sanaa (AFP) Mar 16, 2025 - Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen said Sunday they had attacked a US aircraft carrier group in the Red Sea and would target American commercial vessels, a day after US airstrikes the White House said killed senior rebel leaders.

The Huthi health ministry said women and children were among those killed in the US strike on Saturday.

"In response to this aggression, the armed forces conducted a military operation targeting the US aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and its accompanying warships", the group said in a statement.

The Huthis said they had launched 18 missiles and a drone at the American ships.

There was no immediate comment from the United States about the claim.

Saturday's American attacks on the rebel-held capital Sanaa as well as Saada, Al-Bayda and Radaa killed 53 people and wounded 98, Huthi health ministry spokesperson Anis al-Asbahi said Sunday, updating an earlier toll.

"Final toll from the massacres perpetrated by the American enemy on March 15: 53 martyrs, including five children and two women, as well as 98 wounded, including nine children and nine women," Asbahi posted on X.

US officials on Sunday vowed further strikes until the Huthis stop attacking Red Sea shipping.

The United Nations urged both sides to cease "all military activity".

Before their claimed attack on the carrier, the rebels had carried out no attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since January 19, when a ceasefire began in the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, however, the Huthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli shipping over Israel's halting of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

In a televised address late Sunday, rebel leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi added US cargo ships to its targets "as long as it continues its aggression". He called for a million Yemenis to march on Monday in defiance.

"If the American aggression against our country continues, we will move to additional escalatory options," he said.

- 'Overwhelming force' -

US National Security Advisor Michael Waltz told ABC News that Saturday's strikes "targeted multiple Huthi leaders and took them out".

He told Fox News: "We just hit them with overwhelming force and put Iran on notice that enough is enough."

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth vowed an "unrelenting" missile campaign until the Huthi attacks stop.

"I want to be very clear, this campaign is about freedom of navigation and restoring deterrence," Hegseth said in a televised Fox Business interview.

"The minute the Huthis say, 'We'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your drones,' this campaign will end. But until then, it will be unrelenting."

CENTCOM, the US Central Command, said it had carried out a "large scale operation" against the Huthis.

Witnesses in Yemen, a country that has endured years of war, said Sunday they were taken aback by the attack's intensity.

Footage on Huthi media showed children, including a dazed girl with blackened legs wrapped in bandages, and a woman being treated in hospital.

One father of two, who gave his name as Ahmed, told AFP: "I've been living in Sanaa for 10 years, hearing shelling throughout the war. By God, I've never experienced anything like this before," he said.

Trump, posting on social media, vowed to "use overwhelming lethal force" to end the Huthi attacks, which the rebels say are in solidarity with Palestinians during the Gaza war.

"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!" he said.

"To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY!" Trump added.

The Huthis, who had long complained of marginalisation, seized Sanaa in September 2014, forcing the government to flee south and leaving the rebels controlling large parts of Yemen.

A Saudi-led coalition in March 2015 began a military campaign against the Huthis that the Yemen Data Project, an independent tracker, said involved more than 25,000 air raids.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the deaths in Saturday's US strikes and said Washington had "no authority" to dictate Tehran's foreign policy.

- 'Fully prepared' -

The Huthis' political bureau said its "forces are fully prepared to confront escalation with escalation".

They have launched scores of drone and missile attacks on ships in the two key waterways, and have previously targeted US warships.

The Yemen Conflict Observatory database set up by ACLED, a non-profit monitor, shows 136 Huthi attacks against warships, commercial vessels, Israeli and other targets since October 19, 2023.

The vital trade route normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic, but the Huthi attacks forced many companies into costly detours around southern Africa.

The Palestinian group Hamas, which has praised Huthi support, branded the US strikes "a stark violation of international law and an assault on the country's sovereignty and stability".

The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, said: "Iran will not wage war, but if anyone threatens, it will give appropriate, decisive and conclusive responses."

The United States had already launched several rounds of strikes on Huthi targets.

Israel has also struck Yemen, most recently in December, after Huthi missile fire towards Israeli territory.

Fighting in Yemen's own war has largely been on hold since a 2022 ceasefire, but the promised peace process has stalled in the face of the Huthi attacks on shipping.

The war killed hundreds of thousands either directly or indirectly through causes such as disease, plunging Yemen into one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.