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)
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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 to the Houthis: Real Pain Yet to Come

Houthi supporters attend a protest against US airstrikes on Houthi positions, on Al-Quds Day in Sanaa, Yemen, 28 March 2025. (EPA)
Houthi supporters attend a protest against US airstrikes on Houthi positions, on Al-Quds Day in Sanaa, Yemen, 28 March 2025. (EPA)
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Trump to the Houthis: Real Pain Yet to Come

Houthi supporters attend a protest against US airstrikes on Houthi positions, on Al-Quds Day in Sanaa, Yemen, 28 March 2025. (EPA)
Houthi supporters attend a protest against US airstrikes on Houthi positions, on Al-Quds Day in Sanaa, Yemen, 28 March 2025. (EPA)

Yemen's Houthi militias claimed Tuesday that they shot down another American MQ-9 Reaper drone, even as the US kept up its campaign of intense airstrikes targeting the group.

The reported shootdown over Yemen's contested Marib governate came as airstrikes hit around Sanaa, the country's Houthi-held capital, and Saada, a stronghold for the Houthis.

US President Donald Trump issued a new warning to both the Houthis and their main benefactor, Iran, describing the group as having “been decimated” by the campaign of strikes that began March 15.

“Many of their Fighters and Leaders are no longer with us,” Trump wrote on his social media website Truth Social. “We hit them every day and night — Harder and harder. Their capabilities that threaten Shipping and the Region are rapidly being destroyed. Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation.”

He added: “The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran.”

The Houthis claimed to have felled a drone in Marib governorate, home to oil and gas fields still under the control of allies to Yemen’s legitimate government. Footage released on social media showed flames in the night, with a Yemeni man claiming a drone had been shot down.

Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, separately claimed downing the MQ-9 drone in a prerecorded video message.

Saree described the Houthis targeting the drone with “a suitable locally manufactured missile." The Houthis have surface-to-air missiles — such as the Iranian missile known as the 358 — capable of downing aircraft.

Iran denies arming the Houthis, though Tehran-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in sea shipments heading to Yemen for the militants despite a United Nations arms embargo.

The US military acknowledged to The Associated Press being aware of reports of the downing of a Reaper, but declined to comment further.

General Atomics Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes over 40,000 feet (12,100 meters) and remain in the air for over 30 hours. The aircraft have been flown by both the US military and the CIA for years over Afghanistan, Iraq and now Yemen.

The Houthis claim they've shot down 20 MQ-9s over the country over the years, with 16 downed during the militants' campaign over the Israel-Hamas war. The US military hasn't acknowledged the total number of the drones it has lost there.

An Associated Press review has found the new American operation against the Houthis under Trump appears more extensive than those under former President Joe Biden, as the US moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel as well as dropping bombs in cities.

The new campaign of airstrikes, which the Houthis now say have killed at least 61 people, started after the Houthis threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The militants have loosely defined what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning many vessels could be targeted.

The Houthis targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships, though none has been hit so far.