The United States has carried out large-scale military strikes on Saturday against dozens of targets in Yemen controlled by the Houthie-supported militia, Iran said President Trump.
It was the burst of opening in what senior American officials said they were a new offensive against activists and a strong message to Iran, because Mr. Trump is looking for a nuclear agreement with his government.
The air strikes and navals commanded by Mr. Trump struck radars, air defenses and missile and drone systems in order to open international shipping routes in the Red Sea that the The Houthis have disturbed for months with their own attacks. At least one senior Houthi commander has been targeted. Biden administration has carried out several strikes against the Houthis But failed to restore the stability of the region.
US officials said bombing, the most important military action in Mr. Trump’s second term, was also supposed to send a warning signal to Iran. Mr. Trump wants to negotiate an agreement with Iran To prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but has left the possibility of military action open if the Iranians postpone negotiations.
“Today, I ordered the American army to launch a decisive and powerful military action against Houthi terrorists in Yemen,” Trump said in a message on Truth Social. “They carried out a relentless campaign of hacking, violence and terrorism against American ships and other ships, planes and drones.”
Mr. Trump then pivoted the Iranian leaders of Tehran: “In Iran: support for Houthi terrorists must end immediately! Do not threaten the American people, their president, who received one of the greatest mandates in presidential history or world shipping routes. If you do, beware, because America will keep you fully responsible. »»
US officials said air strikes against the Houthis arsenal, a large part of which is buried deep underground, could last for several weeks, intensifying in the scope and scale according to the reaction of activists. American intelligence agencies have had trouble in the past to identify and locate Houthi weapons systems, which rebels produce in underground factories and hovering Iran.
Certain national security aid wish to continue an even more aggressive campaign that could lead Houthis to lose essentially control of large parts in the north of the country, said US officials. But Mr. Trump has not yet authorized this strategy, distrusting himself with entanglement of the United States in a Middle East conflict that he is committed to avoiding during his campaign.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel pushed Mr. Trump to authorize a joint American-Israeli operation to destroy Iranian nuclear weapons facilities, taking advantage of a time when Iran’s air defenses are exposed, after a bombing campaign of Israel in October in October in October infrastructure. Trump, reluctant to be trained in a major war, has so far retained pressure from Israeli and American Hawks to grasp the opening to strike the nuclear sites of Iran.
Since the assault led by Hamas against Israel in October 2023, the Houthi rebels have attacked more than 100 Merchant ships and warships in the Red Sea with hundreds of missiles, drones and speedboats loaded with explosivesdisturbing world trade via one of the most popular shipping routes in the world.
The Houthis, who are supported by Iran and act as the de facto government in a large part of northern Yemen, has largely interrupted their attacks When Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire in Gaza in January. But Israel instituted a Bloc on Gaza Aid this month, and the Houthis said they Intensify attacks In response.
Group assaults in recent weeks have angry Trump. They pulled an air surface missile in an Air Force F-16 on the Red Sea, missing the jet. An American military drone MQ-9 Reaper disappeared above the Red Sea the same day, the Houthi activists claimed to have shot down.
“For all Houthi terrorists, your time has passed and your attacks must stop, from today.” Trump said in social truth message.
The initial air strikes struck buildings in districts in Sana and the surrounding area, the capital of Yemen, which were bastions of known Houthi leaders, residents said. According to the television news channel managed by the Houthi, Al Masirah, the Yemeni Health Ministry said that nine people had been killed and nine others injured in air strikes. The victims could not be verified independently.
US officials have said that strikes result from a series of high-level white house meetings on Saturday between Trump and the best national security aid, including vice-president JD Vance; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Michael Waltz, President’s national security advisor; The Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; And General Michael E. Kurilla, Head of the central command of the army. Trump approved the plan on Friday.
The strikes were carried out by Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier fighter, now in the North of the Red Sea, as well as by Air Force attack planes and armed drones launched from the region’s bases, American officials said.
During the Biden administration, attacks on commercial navigation were met with several counterattacks from the American and British military forces. Between January and May last, for example, the soldiers of the two countries carried out at least five major joint strikes against the Houthis in response to attacks against the expedition.
United States Central Command, which carried out strikes on Saturday without any other nation, regularly announced military actions against the Houthis.
But strikes led by the United States failed to dissuade them from attacking shipping routes connecting to the Suez Canal which are essential for world trade. Hundreds of ships have been forced to take a long detour around southern Africa, which increases costs. Despite the ceasefire in Gaza, some of the largest maritime container companies show that their ships always go to the Cape of good hope and avoid the Red Sea on their websites.
Biden administration has tried to escape the capacity of the Houthis to threaten merchant ships and military ships without killing a large number of Houthi fighters and commanders, which could release even more chaos in an enlarged regional war than those responsible for Iran.
The fears of this broader regional conflict have suppressed considerably during the months which followed Israel decimated Hezbollah and Hamas, two main armed proxies for Iran in the region, and destroyed a large part of Iran’s air defenses with a series of punishing air strikes which withdrew last fall which left the country even more important Israeli attacks if it has rebuilt.
This gave Mr. Trump more latitude to undertake the large -scale bombing offensive against Houthis and use it as a warning to Iranian leaders if they fell by talks on the Tehran nuclear program.
But we do not know how a renewed bombing campaign against the Houthis would succeed when the previous military efforts led by the Americans have largely failed. Military officials said these strikes would achieve a wider set of Houthi objectives and were carried out during the weeks. Trump did not explain in his message on social networks.
“Joe Biden’s response was pathetically weak, so the Houthis without restraint continued,” said Trump, adding: “The Houthi attack on American ships will not be tolerated. We will use overwhelming mortal force until we achieved our goal.”
Houthis, whose military capacities were perfected by more than eight years of fighting Against a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, I welcomed the prospect of war with the United States with open pleasure.
The Houthis, a tribal group, have taken over a large part of northern Yemen since they stormed the national capital, Sana, in 2014, actually winning a war against the coalition led by Saudi Arabia which spent years trying to confuse them. They built their ideology around opposition to Israel and the United States, and often establish parallels between the bombs made to the Americans who were used to strike Yemen and those sent to Israel and used in Gaza.
At the end of January, Mr. Trump published a decree to rethink the Houthis rebels from Yemen As a “foreign terrorist organization”, calling the group to threaten regional security, said the White House. Critics argued that this decision will aggravate an already disastrous humanitarian crisis in the country.
The order restored an appointment given to the group, officially known as Ansar Allah, late in the first Trump administration. The Biden administration has raised the designation shortly after taking office, in part to facilitate peace talks in the Yemen civil war.
Last year, however, team Biden reversed the course, qualifying the Houthis a “specially designated global terrorist” organization – a less severe category – in response to attacks on American warships in the Red Sea.
The managers of Washington and the Middle East prepared on Saturday for a counterattack Houthis.
Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam, said on social networks On January 22, support for the Palestinian cause would remain an absolute priority even after the ceasefire in Gaza. The Houthis said they would stop targeting all the ships “on the complete implementation of all the phases” of the cease-fire agreement.
But at the same time, the Houthis warned that if the United States or Great Britain directly attacked Yemen, they would resume their attacks against ships associated with these countries. Evidence recently examined by weapons researchers show that the Rebels may have acquired new cutting-edge technology This makes their drones more difficult to detect and help them fly even further.
Peter Eavis contributed the reports of New York and Saeed al-Batati from Al Mukalla, Yemen.