Updated on March 16, 2025, at 6:15 pm EST
A major round of US airstrikes that hit Yemen on Saturday killed at least 53 people, including women and children, Yemen’s Health Ministry said on Sunday.
According to Yemen’s SABA news agency, at least five children and two women were among the dead.
Another 98 were wounded by the US bombing, and the Health Ministry said many of the casualties were civilians, while the US is claiming it killed “multiple” leaders of Yemen’s Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah.
A total of 40 US airstrikes were reported to hit Yemen, primarily focusing on the northern Saada governorate. Strikes also hit the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and the governorates of Taiz, Ibb, Dhamar, Al Bayda, Marib, and Hajjah. Targets that were reported hit included power stations, residential areas and homes, and Houthi military sites. The strikes marked the first time the US bombed Yemen under the new Trump administration.
The Houthis announced on Sunday that they fired back, with Yemeni military spokesman Yahya Saree saying the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman was targeted with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones. A US official later told Reuters that the US military downed 11 drones fired from Yemen and tracked one missile that failed in flight.
Abdul Malik al-Houthi, leader of Ansar Allah, said that in response to the US airstrikes, both US military and commercial vessels in the region will now be targeted by Houthi missiles and drones.
President Trump announced the start of the bombing campaign on Saturday and said the Houthis must stop their attacks on shipping and US warships. However, Ansar Allah hasn’t targeted any ships in months since it ceased attacks once a ceasefire deal was reached in Gaza back in January.
Last week, the Houthis announced that the blockade on Israeli ships was coming back into effect in response to Israel cutting off all aid shipments in Gaza, a blatant violation of the ceasefire deal, but the group hasn’t launched any attacks since then. The Houthis did recently shoot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone that was flying over Yemen or near its coast.
“The Houthi attack on American vessels will not be tolerated. We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective,” President Trump said on Truth Social.
Trump and other US officials are also justifying the strikes by framing them as a way to protect global shipping, although critics are pointing out that the Red Sea being shut down has a minimal impact on the US.
“What the media won’t tell you is this shipping route is mainly used to get exports from Asia to Europe,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) wrote on X. “Its economic value to the United States is primarily in importing oil from the Middle East, but we can drill our own oil. Most US imports from Asia come via the Pacific.”
The Houthis began targeting Israeli-linked shipping in 2023 in response to the US-backed genocidal war on Gaza. President Biden launched a bombing campaign in Yemen to defend Israeli shipping, which only escalated the situation as the Houthis expanded their targeting of commercial shipping to include American and British ships (the UK joined in on the US airstrikes).
Trump is claiming that Biden’s bombing campaign, which involved hundreds of missile strikes and what US commanders called the largest US naval battle since World War II, was “weak.”
“Joe Biden’s response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going,” Trump said. He also issued a warning to Iran, which the US accuses of strongly backing the Houthis, an allegation Tehran denies.
“To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY! Do NOT threaten the American People, their President, who has received one of the largest mandates in Presidential History, or Worldwide shipping lanes. If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!” Trump said.
According to Axios, a US official said the Saturday airstrikes “were not a one-off but the start of a series of ‘relentless’ US strikes against the Houthis that are expected to last for days or maybe even weeks.” On Sunday, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz threatened that the US could hit Iranian targets in Yemen next, though it’s unclear what sort of assets Tehran has in the country.
The Houthis immediately vowed that they would respond to the US strikes. “Targeting civilians proves US weakness; this will not deter us from supporting Gaza but will instead escalate the situation to something even stronger and more severe,” the Yemeni Supreme Political Council said in a statement, according to The Cradle.
During his previous administration, President Trump supported a brutal Saudi/UAE war against the Houthis and used his veto power to kill legislation passed by Congress to end US involvement in the conflict. According to UN numbers, which are considered a low estimate, the US-backed war killed at least 377,000 people, with more than half dying of starvation and disease.
The US-backed Saudi war on Yemen involved a brutal blockade, a heavy bombing campaign, and a ground campaign. During that time, the Houthis only became a more capable fighting force.
