US steps up attacks on Yemen, vowing escalation against Houthi rebels

The United States launched fresh airstrikes on Yemen on Monday, according to the Houthis' Al Masirah TV, with the rebel group and US President Donald Trump both vowing escalation.

Over the weekend, US strikes killed at least 53 people in Yemen, according to the Houthi-run Health Ministry, including five women and two children, and wounded almost 100 in the capital of Sanaa and other provinces, including Saada, the rebels’ stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia.

Euronews could not independently verify these claims.

The US began its new campaign of airstrikes on Yemen on Saturday after the Iran-backed Houthis said last week that they would renew attacks against Israeli vessels after Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month.

On Monday, the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah and Al Jawf governorate north of the capital Sanaa were targeted, Al Masirah said.

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 its ally's actions.

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

Houthis threaten retaliation

The Houthis have repeatedly targeted shipping in the Red Sea, sinking two vessels, in what they call acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally.

The attacks stopped when the Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in January — a day before Trump took office.

“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," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS on Sunday.

No Houthi attacks were reported before the weekend, but the group announced on Sunday that they had responded to Saturday's US strikes by launching an attack of 18 missiles and a drone on the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships in the northern Red Sea.

In a speech aired Sunday night, the Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi stated, “We will confront escalation with escalation.”

“We will respond to the American enemy in its raids, in its attacks, with missile strikes, by targeting its aircraft carrier, its warships, its ships,” al-Houthi said. “However, we also still have escalation options. If it continues its aggression, we will move to additional escalation options.”

On Sunday, head of Tehran's Revolutionary Guard 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 media.

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 rebels. The US Navy has seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weaponry it said was bound for the Houthis.

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