West Palm Beach, Florida (CNN) — US President Donald Trump says he has ordered a “decisive” military action against Houthi rebels in Yemen, opening a new salvo against the Iran-backed group that has targeted shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
The US strikes killed at least 23 people and injured more than 20 others in Yemen on Saturday, according to the Houthi-run health ministry.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the US would deploy “overwhelming lethal force” against the Houthis “until we have achieved our objective,” accusing the group of waging “an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones.”
He said US personnel were carrying out aerial attacks on Houthi bases, leaders and missile defenses “to protect American shipping, air, and naval assets, and to restore Navigational Freedom.”
“No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World,” Trump wrote.
Trump also delivered a warning for Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, saying it must “immediately” end support for the group. He warned that if Iran threatened the American people or their president, “America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!”
At least 13 people were killed and nine injured in US strikes on Yemen’s capital Sanaa, according to the health ministry. Another 10 were killed and 13 others injured – most of them children and women – in the northern province of Saada, the ministry said.
In Saada, strikes targeted a power station in the city of Dahyan, causing a power outage in the city and its suburbs, the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported.
“The US aggression against Yemen is a criminal escalation that will not break the will of the Yemeni people and will only increase their determination to support Gaza and the resistance,” Houthi-run health ministry spokesperson Anees Alasbahi said in a post on X.
Trump approved the Houthi strike plan — which he requested be drawn up several weeks ago — late last week, and the final order was given on Saturday to begin what officials describe as a sustained attack on the group’s positions in Yemen.
Some members of Congress received briefings from the White House on Saturday.
Further actions after Saturday will depend on battle damage assessments from this series of strikes, a US defense official told CNN. But there is expected to be more action against the Houthis over the next several weeks.
A larger campaign of strikes took time to organize and plan because the US had to collect the intelligence necessary for more sweeping attacks against the Houthis. A senior military official recently told CNN the intel collection required for broader strikes had been completed.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the strikes with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, stressing that “continued Houthi attacks on U.S. military and commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea will not be tolerated,” according to a readout from the State Department. Last summer, Russia was prepared to deliver weapons to the Houthis but pulled back following pressure from the US and Saudi Arabia.
The US has been working to degrade Houthi capabilities for months as the entity worked to disrupt international shipping lanes in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest waterways, calling the attacks a response to Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas. The group has targeted more than 100 ships and vessels, including with drones, missiles and small ships.
The Biden administration sought to respond by carrying out targeted strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen, including attacking underground weapons storage facilities in October and November, but the actions did not prevent further attacks.
The Houthis had previously promised to stop attacks on ships in the Red Sea so long as the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was maintained. For more than a year, the group had carried out attacks on cargo ships in what it called revenge against Israel for its military campaign in Gaza, leading to a protracted crisis in the sea’s busy shipping corridor.
“This ban will continue until the crossings into the Gaza Strip are opened and its needs for food and medicine are allowed to enter,” the Houthis said on Tuesday.
“This is not a one off. This is the beginning of an ongoing series of events that will last days if not weeks,” a source familiar with the strategy told CNN. “There is not and will not be an invasion or troops on ground. But there will be a series of ongoing strategic targeted attacks.”
Earlier this year, Trump signed an order designating the Houthis a “foreign terrorist organization.”
Trump, in his message, said the Biden administration’s approach to the Houthis was “pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going.”
“It has been over a year since a U.S. flagged commercial ship safely sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden. The last American Warship to go through the Red Sea, four months ago, was attacked by the Houthis over a dozen times,” he wrote.
“Funded by Iran, the Houthi thugs have fired missiles at U.S. aircraft, and targeted our Troops and Allies. These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk,” he went on.
“To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!” he said.
CNN’s Alayna Treene, Oren Liebermann and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.
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