US President Donald Trump launched large-scale military strikes against Yemen\u2019s Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group\u2019s attacks against Red Sea shipping, killing at least 31 people at the start of a campaign expected to last many days.<\/p>\n
Trump also warned Iran, the Houthis\u2019 main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support for the group. He said if Iran threatened the United States, \u201cAmerica will hold you fully accountable and, we won\u2019t be nice about it!\u201d<\/p>\n
The unfolding strikes \u2014 which one US official told Reuters might continue for weeks \u2014 represent the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office in January. It came as the United States ramps up sanctions pressure on Tehran while trying to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON\u2019T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!\u201d Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.<\/p>\n
At least 13 civilians were killed and nine injured in US strikes on Yemen\u2019s capital Sanaa, according to the Houthi-run health ministry.<\/p>\n
At least 11 others, including four children and one woman, were killed and 14 were injured in a US strike on the northern province of Saada, the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported.<\/p>\n
The Houthis\u2019 political bureau described the attacks as a \u201cwar crime\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Yemeni armed forces are fully prepared to respond to escalation with escalation,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Residents in Sanaa said the strikes hit a building in a Houthi stronghold.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe explosions were violent and shook the neighborhood like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children,\u201d one of the residents, who gave his name as Abdullah Yahia, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
Another strike on a power station in the town of Dahyan in Saada led to a power cut, Al-Masirah TV reported early on Sunday. Dahyan is where Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the enigmatic leader of the Houthis, often meets his visitors.<\/p>\n
The Houthis, an armed movement that took control of most of Yemen over the past decade, have launched scores of attacks on ships off its coast since November 2023, disrupting global commerce and setting the US military on a costly campaign to intercept missiles and drones that have burned through stocks of US air defenses.<\/p>\n
A Pentagon spokesperson said the Houthis have attacked US warships 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times since 2023. The Houthis say the attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel\u2019s conflict in Gaza with Hamas.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s other allies, Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have been severely weakened by Israel since the start of the Gaza conflict. Syria\u2019s Bashar al-Assad, who was closely aligned with Tehran, was overthrown by rebels in December.<\/p>\n
But throughout, Yemen\u2019s Houthis have remained resilient and often on the offensive, sinking two vessels, seizing another and killing at least four seafarers in an offensive that disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to reroute to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa.<\/p>\n
The US administration of then-President Joe Biden had sought to degrade the Houthis\u2019 ability to attack vessels off its coast but limited the US actions.<\/p>\n
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say Trump has authorised a more aggressive approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President Donald Trump launched large-scale military strikes against Yemen\u2019s Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group\u2019s attacks against Red Sea shipping, killing at least 31 people at the start of a campaign expected to last many days. Trump also warned Iran, the Houthis\u2019 main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6873,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6871\/revisions\/6873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}