Dozens of US airstrikes hit Yemen on Tuesday, a day after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth threatened the US would escalate its bombing campaign.
According to the Anadolu Agency, the Houthis reported that 22 US airstrikes hit Yemen on Tuesday, including 11 in the northern Saada province, nine in the central Marib province, and two in the Red Sea province of Hodeidah. More US strikes were reported in the provinces of Dhmar and Ibb.
Yemen’s SABA news agency reported that US strikes in Hodeidah on Tuesday night hit residential areas. According to the local authority in Hodeidah, four civilians were killed by the US strikes, and others were wounded. Women and children were among the casualties.
Residential buildings have been a frequent target of US airstrikes, and the bombing campaign has taken a heavy toll on Yemeni civilians.
The heavy US airstrikes on Tuesday came after Hegseth vowed the situation would get “worse” for Yemen’s Houthis, who are officially known as Ansar Allah. “It’s been a bad three weeks for the Houthis, and it’s about to get a lot worse,” Hegseth said during President Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hegseth claimed it has been a “devastating campaign” for the Houthis despite reports that the airstrikes have only had limited success in destroying Houthi weapons and underground military infrastructure.
During the meeting, President Trump also claimed the bombing campaign has been successful but acknowledged that the Houthis’ missile program was “highly sophisticated” and that the weapons were made inside Yemen, which goes against the narrative that they’re reliant on Iran for weapons.
“We’ve really hit them hard. Night after night, and we’ve gotten many of their leaders and their experts. They’re experts on missiles. I mean, they actually make missiles. Nobody thought that, but they make missiles. It’s highly sophisticated,” Trump said.
Hegseth said the bombing campaign would “only get more unrelenting until the Houthis declare they will stop shooting at our ships.”
The Houthis did stop shooting at US ships once a ceasefire was declared in Gaza on January 19 and only restarted attacks once the US relaunched its bombing campaign in Yemen on March 15.
The US restarted the bombing campaign after the Houthis announced they would reimpose a blockade on Israeli shipping in the region in response to Israel’s Gaza ceasefire violations. The Houthis have maintained that the only way they will stop their attacks now is if there’s another ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory.
