By SAMY MAGDY
CAIRO (AP) — America and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are each vowing escalation after the U.S. launched airstrikes to discourage the rebels from attacking army and business vessels on one of many world’s busiest delivery corridors.
The Houthi-run Well being Ministry mentioned the U.S. strikes killed no less than 53 folks, together with 5 girls and two kids, and wounded virtually 100 within the capital of Sanaa and different provinces, together with Saada, the rebels’ stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia.
“We’re not going to have these folks controlling which ships can undergo and which of them can not. And so your query is, how lengthy will this go on? It’ll go on till they now not have the potential to try this,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio instructed CBS on Sunday.
President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to make use of “overwhelming deadly pressure” till the Houthis stop their assaults, and warned that Tehran can be held “absolutely accountable” for his or her actions.
The Houthis have repeatedly focused delivery within the Pink Sea, sinking two vessels, in what they name acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, the place Israel has been at warfare with Hamas, one other Iranian ally. The assaults stopped when a Israel-Hamas ceasefire took maintain in January — a day earlier than Trump took workplace — however final week the Houthis mentioned they might renew assaults towards Israeli vessels after Israel lower off the stream of humanitarian help to Gaza this month.
There have been no Houthi assaults reported since then.
The U.S. airstrikes had been one of the crucial intensive assaults towards the Houthis for the reason that warfare in Gaza started in October 2023.
Trump’s nationwide safety adviser, Michael Waltz, on Sunday instructed ABC that the strikes “truly focused a number of Houthi leaders and took them out.” He didn’t determine them or give proof. Rubio mentioned some Houthi amenities had been destroyed.
In a speech aired Sunday evening, the rebels’ secretive chief, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, warned: “We’ll confront escalation with escalation.”
“We’ll reply to the American enemy in its raids, in its assaults, with missile strikes, by focusing on its plane service, its warships, its ships,” al-Houthi mentioned. “Nonetheless, we additionally nonetheless have escalation choices. If it continues its aggression, we are going to transfer to further escalation choices.”
He didn’t elaborate. The Houthis have focused U.S. warships and shot down American drones flying over Yemen.
The rebels on Sunday claimed to have focused the usHarry S. Truman service strike group with missiles and a drone.
In keeping with a U.S. official, the Houthis did hearth drones and no less than one missile in response to the U.S. assault. The official, who spoke on situation of anonymity to offer up to date data on operations, mentioned that starting at about midnight native time in Yemen, the Houthis fired 11 drones and no less than one missile over about 12 hours. Ten of the drones had been intercepted by U.S. Air Drive fighter jets and one was intercepted by a Navy F/A-18 fighter jet. The missile fell into the water removed from the ship, and nothing got here near hitting both the service or the warships in its strike group.
The spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-Basic Antonio Guterres in an announcement known as for “utmost restraint and a cessation of all army actions,” whereas warning of the “grave dangers” to the dire humanitarian scenario in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation.
Rubio mentioned that over the previous 18 months the Houthis had attacked the U.S. Navy “instantly” 174 instances and focused business delivery 145 instances utilizing “guided precision anti-ship weaponry.”
The assaults sparked probably the most critical fight the U.S. Navy had seen since World Conflict II.
On Sunday, the pinnacle of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, denied his nation was concerned within the Houthis’ assaults, saying it “performs no function in setting the nationwide or operational insurance policies” of the militant teams it’s allied with throughout the area, in accordance with state-run TV.
Iran’s International Minister Abbas Araghchi, writing on X, urged the U.S. to halt its airstrikes and mentioned Washington can not dictate Iran’s international coverage.
The U.S. and others have lengthy accused Iran of offering army help to the rebels. The U.S. Navy has seized Iranian-made missile components and different weaponry it mentioned was certain for the Houthis.
America, Israel and Britain beforehand hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen, however the brand new operation was carried out solely by the U.S. It was the primary strike on the Houthis below the second Trump administration.
The united statesHarry S. Truman service strike group, which incorporates the service, three Navy destroyers and one cruiser, is within the Pink Sea and was a part of the mission. The united statesGeorgia cruise missile submarine has additionally been working within the area.
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Related Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, and Tara Copp and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
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Comply with AP’s warfare protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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