US and Iran-Backed Houthis in Yemen Both Vow Escalation after Wave of US Airstrikes

This handout image released by US Central Command (CENTCOM) via X (formerly Twitter) on March 15, 2025 shows CENTCOM forces launching an operation against Houthi targets across Yemen. (US Central Command / AFP)
This handout image released by US Central Command (CENTCOM) via X (formerly Twitter) on March 15, 2025 shows CENTCOM forces launching an operation against Houthi targets across Yemen. (US Central Command / AFP)
TT
20

US and Iran-Backed Houthis in Yemen Both Vow Escalation after Wave of US Airstrikes

This handout image released by US Central Command (CENTCOM) via X (formerly Twitter) on March 15, 2025 shows CENTCOM forces launching an operation against Houthi targets across Yemen. (US Central Command / AFP)
This handout image released by US Central Command (CENTCOM) via X (formerly Twitter) on March 15, 2025 shows CENTCOM forces launching an operation against Houthi targets across Yemen. (US Central Command / AFP)

The United States and Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen are both vowing escalation after the US launched airstrikes to deter the militants from attacking military and commercial vessels on one of the world's busiest shipping corridors.

“We’re not going to have these people controlling which ships can go through and which ones cannot. And so your question is, how long will this go on? It will go on until they no longer have the capability to do that," Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS on Sunday. He said these are not the one-off retaliation strikes the Biden administration carried out after Houthi attacks.

President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to use “overwhelming lethal force” until the Houthis cease their attacks, and warned that Tehran would be held “fully accountable” for their actions.

The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the overnight strikes killed at least 31 people, including women and children, and wounded over 100 in the capital of Sanaa and the northern province of Saada, the militias’ stronghold.

Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz, on Sunday told ABC that the strikes “actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out.” He didn't identify them or give evidence. Rubio said some Houthi facilities had been destroyed.

The Houthis’ political bureau has said the militias will respond to the US strikes and “meet escalation with escalation.”

The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea and launched missiles and drones at Israel in what the militants have called acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally. They sank two merchant vessels.

Rubio said that over the past 18 months, the Houthis had attacked the US Navy “directly” 174 times and attacked commercial shipping 145 times with “guided precision anti-ship weaponry.”

The attacks sparked the most serious combat the US Navy had seen since World War II.

The overnight US airstrikes were one of the most extensive attacks against the Houthis since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.

The Houthi attacks stopped when a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in Gaza in January, but last week the militants said they would renew attacks against Israeli vessels sailing off Yemen after Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month.

There have been no Houthi attacks reported since then.

On Sunday, Iran responded to Trump's warning and denied aiding the Houthis.

The head of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, denied his country was involved in the Houthis' attacks, saying it “plays no role in setting the national or operational policies” of the militant groups it is allied with across the region, according to state-run TV.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, writing on X, urged the US to halt its airstrikes and said Washington cannot dictate Iran's foreign policy.

The US and others have long accused Iran of providing military aid to the militias. The US Navy has seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weaponry it said were bound for the Houthis.

The United States, Israel and Britain previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen, but the new operation was conducted solely by the US It was the first strike on the Houthis under the second Trump administration.

The USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group, which includes the carrier, three Navy destroyers and one cruiser, are in the Red Sea and were part of the mission. The USS Georgia cruise missile submarine has also been operating in the region.



Trump Warns Iran It Will Face ‘Consequences’ of Further Attacks from Yemen’s Houthis

A man inspects the rubble of a house hit by a US strike on the weekend in Yemen's northern Saada province on March 17, 2025. (AFP)
A man inspects the rubble of a house hit by a US strike on the weekend in Yemen's northern Saada province on March 17, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20

Trump Warns Iran It Will Face ‘Consequences’ of Further Attacks from Yemen’s Houthis

A man inspects the rubble of a house hit by a US strike on the weekend in Yemen's northern Saada province on March 17, 2025. (AFP)
A man inspects the rubble of a house hit by a US strike on the weekend in Yemen's northern Saada province on March 17, 2025. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump on Monday explicitly linked the actions of Yemen's Houthi militias to their main benefactor, Iran, warning Tehran would “suffer the consequences” for further attacks by the militants.

The comments by Trump on his Truth Social website escalate his administration's new campaign of airstrikes targeting the militias, which killed at least 53 people this weekend alone and appear poised to continue. Meanwhile, Iran continues to weigh how to respond to a letter Trump sent them last week trying to jump-start negotiations over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program.

Houthi supporters themselves rallied in several cities Monday after the strikes, vowing revenge against America and Israel over blocking aid to the Gaza Strip after its war on Hamas there.

“The Yemeni position is an irreversible position (regarding Gaza), so do whatever you (Americans) want, for we are men who fear no one but God," said Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a Houthi leader who spoke to the demonstration in Yemen's Houthi-held capital, Sanaa.

Describing the Houthis as “sinister mobsters and thugs,” Trump warned any attack by the militias would be met with “great force, and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there.”

“Iran has played ‘the innocent victim’ of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control,” Trump alleged in his post. “They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, 'Intelligence.'”

It's unclear what sparked Trump's post. However, the head of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard sought to separate the Houthis' actions from those of Tehran this weekend. The Houthis also launched drones and missiles targeting the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, though none reached the ship as it continues flight operations in the region.

Iran did not immediately comment on the post.

“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!” Trump added.

The Houthis attacked over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors, from November 2023 until January this year when a ceasefire began in Gaza.

The Houthis claimed there had been additional US airstrikes overnight, though American officials did not immediately acknowledge them.

World Food Program warehouse raided by Houthis

In Saada province, the Houthis' stronghold, the militias raided a warehouse run by the World Food Program. A member of Yemen's legitimate government first reported the Houthis had been taking supplies from the facility without the WFP's permission in the aftermath of the US airstrikes. The United Nations agency later acknowledged the Houthis' actions to The Associated Press.

“WFP regrets the de facto authorities' decision to seize some of the commodities,” it said. “These commodities were intended for the most vulnerable food-insecure families. Only WFP and its partners have the authority to distribute them and ensure they reach the intended recipients.”

Yemen, at war since the Houthis seized Sanaa back in 2014, has been on the precipice of famine for years. But the UN in February suspended its operations in Saada over security concerns following the detentions by the Houthis of dozens of UN workers and others in recent months. A day later, the WFP announced one of its staffers died while imprisoned by the Houthis.