US President Donald Trump launched major military strikes on Saturday against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis over their attacks on ships in the Red Sea, killing at least 31 people at the start of a strike expected to last for days.
Trump also warned Iran, the main backer of the Houthis, that it must immediately end its support for the group. He said if Iran threatens the United States, “America will hold you fully responsible and we will not be nice about it!”
Iran on Sunday called the deadly US strikes against the Houthis “barbaric” and said it “strongly condemns” the attack.
Iran “strongly condemns the barbaric airstrikes carried out by the United States”, said the statement of the Iranian diplomacy, which regretted the “dozens of deaths and injuries”, including “innocent Yemeni women and children”.
The commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reacted on Sunday by saying that the Houthis are independent and make their own strategic and operational decisions.
“We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they carry out their threats,” Hossein Salami told state media.
The US strikes – which a US official told Reuters could last for weeks – represent the largest US military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office in January.
Trump: Hell will fall on you
They began as the United States ramped up sanctions pressure on Tehran in an attempt 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, hell will fall on you like never before!” Trump announced in a message in large letters on his platform.
At least 31 people were killed and 101 wounded in the US strikes, most of them women and children, Anis al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry, said in a statement on Sunday.
The Houthi political bureau described the attacks as a “war crime”
“Our Yemeni armed forces are fully prepared to respond to escalation with escalation,” the statement said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on the United States to stop its attacks on Yemen’s Houthis, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. Lavrov spoke by phone with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the ministry said.
Residents in Sanaa said the strikes hit a building in a Houthi stronghold.
“The explosions were fierce and shook the neighborhood like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children,” a resident who gave his name as Abdullah Yahia told Reuters.
The strikes also targeted Houthi military positions in the southwestern Yemeni city of Taiz, two witnesses in the area said on Sunday.
Another strike at a power plant in the city of Dahjan in Saada caused a power outage, Al-Masira TV reported early Sunday. Dahjan is where Abdul Malik al Houthi, the enigmatic leader of the movement, often meets with his visitors.
Solidarity with Gaza
The Houthis, an armed movement that has seized control of much of Yemen in the past decade, have launched dozens of attacks on ships off the Yemeni coast in solidarity with the people of Gaza under Israeli air and ground attacks, which have been deprived of food, water and destroyed hospitals.
Houthi attacks on shipping began in November 2023, disrupting global trade and forcing the US military into a costly campaign of intercepting missiles and drones that destroyed US air defense supplies.
A Pentagon spokesman said the Houthis have attacked US warships 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times since 2023.
The previous US administration of President Joseph Biden sought to reduce the Houthis’ ability to attack vessels, but limited the scale of US action.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump had approved a more aggressive approach.
The US military’s Central Command, which oversees troops in the Middle East, described Saturday’s attacks as the start of a large-scale operation across Yemen.
The strikes on Saturday were carried out in part by fighter jets from the aircraft carrier Harry Truman, which is in the Red Sea, officials said.
“Houthi attacks on US ships and aircraft (and our troops!) will not be tolerated; and Iran, their benefactor, has been warned,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegzet wrote on social media.
“End support for Israeli genocide and terrorism”
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the attacks on Yemen as a “gross violation of the principles of the United Nations Charter and fundamental rules of international law,” in a statement carried by state media.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arakchi said the US government “does not have the authority nor should it determine Iran’s foreign policy.”
“End support for Israeli genocide and terrorism,” he said in a post on IX early Sunday.
On Tuesday, the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli ships transiting the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, through the Bab al Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden, ending a period of relative peace that began in January with a cease-fire in Gaza.
The US strikes came just days after Trump delivered a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, seeking talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
On Wednesday, Khamenei ruled out holding talks with the United States.
