US and Iran-backed Houthis both vow escalation after US airstrikes
target rebels in Yemen
[March 17, 2025]
By SAMY MAGDY
CAIRO (AP) — The United States and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen
are both vowing escalation after the U.S. launched airstrikes to deter
the rebels from attacking military and commercial vessels on one of the
world's busiest shipping corridors.
The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the U.S. strikes killed at least 53
people, 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.
“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," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS on Sunday.
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 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 a Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in January —
a day before Trump took office — but last week the Houthis said they
would renew attacks against Israeli vessels after Israel cut off the
flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month.
There have been no Houthi attacks reported since then.
The U.S. airstrikes were one of the most extensive attacks against the
Houthis since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.
Trump’s national security adviser, Mike 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.
In a speech aired Sunday night, the rebels’ secretive leader, Abdul-Malik
al-Houthi, warned: “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.”
He did not elaborate. The Houthis have targeted U.S. warships and shot
down American drones flying over Yemen.
The rebels on Sunday claimed to have targeted the USS Harry S. Truman
carrier strike group with missiles and a drone.
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This image taken from video provided by the U.S. Navy shows an
aircraft launching from the USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea
before airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (U.S.
Navy via AP)
According to a U.S. official, the Houthis did fire drones and at
least one missile in response to the U.S. attack. The official, who
spoke on condition of anonymity to provide updated information on
operations, said that beginning at about midnight local time in
Yemen, the Houthis fired 11 drones and at least one missile over
about 12 hours. Ten of the drones were intercepted by U.S. Air Force
fighter jets and one was intercepted by a Navy F/A-18 fighter jet.
The missile fell into the water far from the ship, and nothing came
close to hitting either the carrier or the warships in its strike
group.
The spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a
statement called for “utmost restraint and a cessation of all
military activities,” while warning of the “grave risks” to the dire
humanitarian situation in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation.
Rubio said that over the past 18 months the Houthis had attacked the
U.S. Navy “directly” 174 times and targeted commercial shipping 145
times using “guided precision anti-ship weaponry.”
The attacks sparked the most serious combat the U.S. Navy had seen
since World War II.
On Sunday, 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 U.S.
to halt its airstrikes and said Washington cannot dictate Iran's
foreign policy.
The U.S. and others have long accused Iran of providing military aid
to the rebels. The U.S. Navy has seized Iranian-made missile parts
and other weaponry it said was 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
U.S. 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, is in the Red Sea
and was part of the mission. The USS Georgia cruise missile
submarine has also been operating in the region.
___
Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, and Tara Copp
and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
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