53 killed in US airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthis
Sanaa, March 17 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) The Houthi-run Health Ministry has said that the overnight US strikes killed at least 53 people, including five women and two children, and wounded more than 100 people in Yemeni state capital Sanaa, media reported.
The US has escalated its strikes against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, with President Donald Trump vowing on Saturday to use ‘overwhelming lethal force’ against the rebels who have attacked international ships in the Red Sea in ‘solidarity’ with Gaza.
Multiple US strikes in Yemen’s capital Sanaa and other areas have resulted in numerous casualties with the militants also vowing escalation as they face one of the most extensive attacks since the war in Gaza began in October 2023
The US conducted overnight airstrikes on multiple targets in Yemen starting around midnight on Sunday, targeting the capital Sanaa, and other places, including the Houthi stronghold province of Sadaa.
Trump said that the Houthis must stop their attacks on international ships in the Red Sea, one of the busiest shipping routes in the world. If they don’t, the US President vowed that ‘hell will rain down’ on them like ‘nothing you have seen before’.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS News on Sunday that the strikes will continue until the Iran-backed militants ‘no longer have the capability’ to attack international ships.
The Houthis have been repeatedly targeting international shipping in the Red Sea, sinking two vessels, in what they call acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally.
Rubio said that over the past 18 months, the Houthis had attacked the US Navy “directly” 174 times and targeted commercial shipping 145 times using “guided precision anti-ship weaponry”.
The attacks had stopped since the ceasefire in Gaza came into effect in January.
Last week, the Houthis said they would renew attacks against Israeli vessels after Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month. But no ship has reported any attacks since then.
Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser, Michael Waltz, on Sunday, told ABC News that the strikes “actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out”. He didn’t identify them or give evidence.
According to Marco Rubio, some Houthi facilities had been destroyed.
Media outlets reported the Houthis’ political bureau saying that the rebels will respond to the US strikes and “meet escalation with escalation”.
On Sunday, the militants claimed to have targeted the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group with missiles and a drone.
Houthis did fire drones and at least one missile in response to the US attack, media reported quoting sources.
According to the report, the Houthis fired 11 drones and at least one missile over about 12 hours beginning at about midnight local time in Yemen.
The carrier group remained unscathed though as ten of the drones were intercepted by the US Air Force fighter jets and one was intercepted by a Navy F/A-18 fighter jet. The missile fell into the water far from the ship.
While the Donald Trump administration said that hat it would hold Iran accountable for attacks by the Houthis, Tehran denied any involvement in the attacks. The Iranian Foreign Ministry also said that Washington couldn’t ‘dictate’ its foreign policy.
