North Korea Condemns US Strikes against Yemen

A ship fires missiles at an undisclosed location, after US President Donald Trump launched military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, in this screengrab obtained from a handout video released on March 15, 2025. US Central Command/Handout via REUTERS
A ship fires missiles at an undisclosed location, after US President Donald Trump launched military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, in this screengrab obtained from a handout video released on March 15, 2025. US Central Command/Handout via REUTERS
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North Korea Condemns US Strikes against Yemen

A ship fires missiles at an undisclosed location, after US President Donald Trump launched military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, in this screengrab obtained from a handout video released on March 15, 2025. US Central Command/Handout via REUTERS
A ship fires missiles at an undisclosed location, after US President Donald Trump launched military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, in this screengrab obtained from a handout video released on March 15, 2025. US Central Command/Handout via REUTERS

North Korea condemned recent US strikes on Yemen as an act violating international law and a country's sovereignty and said such a move could never be justified in any way, the North's state media quoted on Tuesday its ambassador to Yemen as saying.

The large-scale US strikes were launched by President Donald Trump last week targeting Iran-aligned Houthis over the group's attacks on Red Sea shipping. The Houthi-run health ministry said the strikes killed at least 53 people including women and children.

The North Korean ambassador, Ma Dong Hui, who the KCNA state news agency said was also Pyongyang's envoy to Egypt, said Washington "indiscriminately" targeted civilians and property by mobilizing air and navy forces including an aircraft carrier.

"The military attack by the United States is a violent violation of the UN Charter and international law, and is a blatant infringement on the territorial sovereignty of another country that cannot be justified by any means," Ma said.

"I express grave concern about the illegal and reckless military actions by the United States, which is obsessed with realizing geopolitical ambitions ... and I strongly condemn and reject them."

The US Defense Department said the strikes hit more than 30 sites and involved fighter jets launched from a carrier in the Red Sea.



Somali Militants Target Presidential Convoy in Bomb Attack, President Safe

A police tow-truck leaves the scene of an explosion near the Presidential Palace, also known as Villa Somalia, in the Hamar Jajab district of Mogadishu, Somalia March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Feisal Omar
A police tow-truck leaves the scene of an explosion near the Presidential Palace, also known as Villa Somalia, in the Hamar Jajab district of Mogadishu, Somalia March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Feisal Omar
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Somali Militants Target Presidential Convoy in Bomb Attack, President Safe

A police tow-truck leaves the scene of an explosion near the Presidential Palace, also known as Villa Somalia, in the Hamar Jajab district of Mogadishu, Somalia March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Feisal Omar
A police tow-truck leaves the scene of an explosion near the Presidential Palace, also known as Villa Somalia, in the Hamar Jajab district of Mogadishu, Somalia March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Feisal Omar

Al Shabaab militants targeted Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in a bomb attack on his motorcade as it was traveling through the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, the group said.

Two senior government and military officials told Reuters that Mohamud was safe following the attack, and presidential adviser Zakariye Hussein wrote in a post on X that he was “good and well on his way to the front lines.”

Soldiers and local residents who witnessed the attack confirmed that the president's convoy had been hit.

A Reuters journalist at the scene saw the bodies of four people killed in the assault near the presidential palace.

“Our fighters targeted a convoy of vehicles carrying Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as they were leaving the presidential palace and heading to the airport,” al Shabaab said in a statement posted on the al Qaeda-linked group's Telegram channel.

While al Shabaab regularly carries out attacks in Somalia as part of its decades-long campaign to topple the government, Tuesday's attack was the first to directly target Mohamud since 2014, during his first term in office, when they bombed a hotel where he was speaking.

Hours after the attack on Tuesday, state media showed images of the president in the Adan Yabal district of Somalia's Middle Shabelle region, where government forces are battling a three-week-old al Shabaab offensive.

Meanwhile, more than 120 militants were killed and their bases were destroyed after the Somali army, with the help of international partners, launched strategic airstrikes within the Jilib town in the Middle Jubba.

On Tuesday, the Somali news agency, SONNA, said during the operation in Jilib, the army managed to control al Shabaab strongholds, killing 20 terrorist field commanders and destroying several militia bases.

“The operation targeted critical sites, including the district headquarters, a guerrilla command center, training camps, and an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) manufacturing facility,” the Army said.