US vows to keep hitting Houthis until shipping attacks stop

A ship fires missiles at an undisclosed location, after US President Donald Trump launched military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping. (Reuters via US Central Command)
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Updated 17 March 2025
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US vows to keep hitting Houthis until shipping attacks stop

  • US defense secretary’s statement comes a day after America’s air strikes against Yemen’s Houthis on Sunday 
  • Houthi leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi vows to continue attacks against US ships “if they continue their aggression“

WASHINGTON/ADEN: The United States will keep attacking Yemen’s Houthis until they end attacks on shipping, the US defense secretary said on Sunday, as the Iran-aligned group signaled it could escalate in response to deadly US strikes the day before.
The airstrikes are the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January. One US official told Reuters the campaign might continue for weeks.

A spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry said the death toll of the US attacks has risen to 53. Five children and two women were among the victims while the number of injuries rose to 98, Anees Alsbahi, the spokesperson, added on X.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said on Sunday that his militants would target US ships in the Red Sea as long as the US continues its attacks on Yemen. “If they continue their aggression, we will continue the escalation,” he said in a televised speech.
The Houthi movement’s political bureau described the attacks as a “war crime,” while Moscow urged Washington to cease the strikes.
The Houthis’ military spokesperson on Sunday said, without offering evidence, that the group had targeted US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and its warships in the Red Sea with ballistic missiles and drones in response to the US attacks.
A US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters, dismissed the claims, saying they were not aware of any Houthi attack on the Truman.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures“: “The minute the Houthis say we’ll stop shooting at your ships, we’ll stop shooting at your drones. This campaign will end, but until then it will be unrelenting.”
“This is about stopping the shooting at assets ... in that critical waterway, to reopen freedom of navigation, which is a core national interest of the United States, and Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long,” he said. “They better back off.”

 

The Houthis, who have taken control of most of Yemen over the past decade, said last week they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea if Israel did not lift a block on aid entering Gaza.
They had launched scores of attacks on shipping after Israel’s war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians.
Trump also told Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, to stop supporting the group immediately. He said if Iran threatened the United States, “America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!“

Iran warns US not to escalate
In response, Hossein Salami, the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said the Houthis made their own decisions.
“We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they carry out their threats,” he told state media.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday called for “utmost restraint and a cessation of all military activities” in Yemen and warned new escalation could “fuel cycles of retaliation that may further destabilize Yemen and the region, and pose grave risks to the already dire humanitarian situation in the country,” his spokesperson said in a statement.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” program: “There’s no way the ... Houthis would have the ability to do this kind of thing unless they had support from Iran. And so this was a message to Iran: don’t keep supporting them, because then you will also be responsible for what they are doing in attacking Navy ships and attacking global shipping.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Rubio to urge an “immediate cessation of the use of force and the importance for all sides to engage in political dialogue,” Moscow said.
Most of the 31 people confirmed killed in the US strikes were women and children, said Anees Al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry. More than 100 were injured.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the claims of civilian casualties. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
Residents in Sanaa said the strikes hit a neighborhood known to host several members of the Houthi leadership.
“The explosions were violent and shook the neighborhood like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children,” said one of the residents, who gave his name as Abdullah Yahia.
In Sanaa, a crane and bulldozer were used to remove debris at one site and people used their bare hands to pick through the rubble. At a hospital, medics treated the injured, including children, and the bodies of several casualties were placed in a yard, wrapped in plastic sheets, Reuters footage showed.
Strikes also targeted Houthi military sites in the city of Taiz, two witnesses said on Sunday.

Houthis’ Red Sea attacks disrupt global trade route 
Another strike, on a power station in the town of Dahyan, led to a power cut, Al-Masirah TV reported early on Sunday. Dahyan is where Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, the enigmatic leader of the Houthis, often meets visitors.
The Houthi attacks on shipping have disrupted global commerce and set the US military off on a costly campaign to intercept missiles and drones.
The group suspended its campaign when Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza in January.
But on March 12, the Houthis said their threat to attack Israeli ships would remain in effect until Israel reapproved the delivery of aid and food into Gaza.


Syria’s Kurds hold conference on vision for country’s future

Mazloum Abdi, commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), speaks during the pan-Kurdish "Unity and Consensus" conf
Updated 26 April 2025
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Syria’s Kurds hold conference on vision for country’s future

  • More than 400 people, including representatives from major Kurdish parties in Syria, Iraq and Turkiye, took part in the “Unity of the Kurdish Position and Ranks” conference in Qamishli

QAMISHLI: Syria’s Kurdish parties held a conference on Saturday aimed at presenting a unified vision for the country’s future following the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Assad, a high-ranking participant told AFP.
Eldar Khalil, an official in the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, said that since Kurds were a major component of the country, they “must present a solution and a project proposal for the future of Syria.”
On the question of federalism, Khalil said it was “one of the proposals on the table.”
More than 400 people, including representatives from major Kurdish parties in Syria, Iraq and Turkiye, took part in the “Unity of the Kurdish Position and Ranks” conference in Qamishli, according to the Kurdish Anha news agency.
The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, which has controlled large swathes of Syria’s northeast since the early years of the country’s civil war, was represented at the gathering, as were groups opposed to it.
Last month, the Kurdish administration struck a deal to integrate into state institutions, with the new Islamist-led leadership seeking to unify the country following the December overthrow of Assad.
The agreement, however, has not prevented the Kurdish administration from criticizing the new authorities, including over the formation of a new government and a recent constitutional declaration that concentrated executive power in the hands of interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa during the transition period.
Mazloum Abdi, head of the administration’s armed wing, the Syrian Democratic Forces, said at the conference that “my message to all Syrian constituents and the Damascus government is that the conference does not aim, as some say, at division.”
It was being held, he added, “for the unity of Syria.”
Abdi included a call for “a new decentralized constitution that includes all components” of society.
“We support all Syrian components receiving their rights in the constitution to be able to build a decentralized democratic Syria that embraces everyone,” he said.
Khalil said that the participants will also discuss ways to address the role of the Kurds in the new Syria.


Iran says 4 people have been killed in massive port explosion

Updated 26 April 2025
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Iran says 4 people have been killed in massive port explosion

  • Authorities have offered no cause for the explosion yet
  • Footage on state TV showed thick columns of black smoke billowing from the port area

TEHRAN: A massive explosion and fire at a port in southern Iran has killed four people, authorities said Saturday.
Babak Mahmoudi, the head of the country’s rescue organization, made the announcement of the fatalities on state television.
Over 500 others have been injured in the blast at the Shahid Rajaei port.
The blast happened at the Shahid Rajaei port just outside of Bandar Abbas, a major facility for container shipments for the Islamic Republic that handles some 80 million tons (72.5 million metric tons) of goods a year.
Social media videos showed black billowing smoke after the blast. Others showed glass blown out of buildings kilometers (miles) away from the epicenter of the explosion.
Authorities have offered no cause for the explosion yet. Industrial accidents happen in Iran, particularly at its aging oil facilities that struggle for access to parts under international sanctions. But Iranian state TV specifically ruled out any energy infrastructure as causing or being damaged in the blast.
Mehrdad Hasanzadeh, a provincial disaster management official, told Iranian state TV that first responders were trying to reach the area while others were attempting to evacuate the site.
Hasanzadeh said the blast came from containers at Rajaei port in the city, without elaborating. State TV also reported there had been a building collapse caused by the explosion, though there were no immediate other details offered.
Rajaei port is some 1,050 kilometers (652 miles) southeast of Iran’s capital, Tehran, on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Arabian Gulf through which 20 percent of all oil traded passes.
The blast happened as Iran and the United States met Saturday in Oman for the third round of negotiations over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.


Iran, US hold new round of high-stakes nuclear talks

Updated 26 April 2025
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Iran, US hold new round of high-stakes nuclear talks

  • A third round of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States “may be extended,” Iranian state media reported Saturday, as negotiators were meeting in Oman

MUSCAT: The United States and Iran started discussing details of a potential nuclear deal in Oman Saturday as they held their third round of talks in as many weeks.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are again leading the talks, which this time include a technical-level meeting between experts from both sides.
The discussions are aimed at striking a new deal that would stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons — an objective Tehran denies pursuing — in return for relief from crippling sanctions.
US President Donald Trump pulled out of an earlier multilateral nuclear deal during his first term in office.
Saturday’s talks were taking place in a “serious atmosphere,” Tehran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said, according to the Tasnim news agency.
Iran’s defense and missile capabilities were not on the agenda, Baqaei said separately to state TV, while an Iranian negotiator told Tasnim that the talks were “uniquely about sanctions and nuclear questions.”
Michael Anton, the State Department’s head of policy planning, leads the US expert-level delegation, while deputy foreign ministers Kazem Gharibabadi and Majid Takht-Ravanchi will lead Tehran’s, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
The talks started at around 10am (0600 GMT) with the delegations in separate rooms and communicating via the hosts, Baqaei said in a statement.
Iran’s state news agency IRNA said the talks may extend beyond Saturday, “given that the negotiations have entered technical and expert-level discussions and the examination of details.”
Araghchi earlier expressed “cautious optimism,” saying this week: “If the sole demand by the US is for Iran to not possess nuclear weapons, this demand is achievable.”
But if Washington had “impractical or illogical demands, we will naturally encounter problems,” he added.
The talks coincided with a major blast from unknown causes at Iran’s Shahid Rajaee port that injured hundreds of people and killed at least four, according to state media.
Before the talks, Trump, in an interview published Friday by Time magazine, reiterated his threat of military action if a deal fell through.
But he added that he “would much prefer a deal than bombs being dropped.” The talks began in Muscat a fortnight a go and continued in Rome last Saturday.
They are the highest-level engagement between the long-time foes since 2018, when Trump withdrew from the landmark 2015 accord that gave Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear program.
Since returning to office, Trump has reinstated his “maximum pressure” policy of sanctions against Tehran.
In March, he wrote to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proposing talks, but also warning of potential military action if diplomacy failed.
On Tuesday, Washington announced new sanctions targeting Iran’s oil network — a move Tehran described as “hostile” ahead of Saturday’s talks.
Western nations, including the United States, have long accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
Tehran has consistently denied the charge, maintaining that its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes.
On Wednesday, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi called on Iran to explain tunnels built near its Natanz nuclear site, seen in satellite imagery released by the Institute for Science and International Security.
The Washington-based think tank also noted construction of a new security perimeter.
In an interview released Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated Washington’s firm stance against Iran’s uranium enrichment.
“If Iran wants a civil nuclear program, they can have one just like many other countries in the world have one: and that is they import enriched material,” he said on the Honestly podcast.
Iran currently enriches uranium up to 60 percent, far above the 3.67 percent limit imposed by the 2015 deal but still below the 90 percent threshold required for weapons-grade material.
Araghchi has previously called Iran’s right to enrich uranium “non-negotiable.”
Tehran recently sought to reopen dialogue with Britain, France and Germany — also signatories to the 2015 deal — holding several rounds of nuclear talks ahead of the US meetings.
Last week, Rubio urged the three European states to decide whether to trigger the “snapback” mechanism under the 2015 agreement, which would automatically reinstate UN sanctions on Iran over its non-compliance.
The option to use the mechanism expires in October.
Iran has warned that it could withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if the snapback is triggered.


Israel says intercepted missile launched from Yemen

Israeli security officers oversee the removal of a part of a missile fired from Yemen. (File/AFP)
Updated 26 April 2025
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Israel says intercepted missile launched from Yemen

  • The Houthis, who control large parts of Yemen, have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at Israel since the war in Gaza

Israel’s military said Saturday it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, whose Houthi militants have launched attacks throughout the Gaza war, as well as a drone approaching “from the east.”
“Following the sirens that sounded recently in several areas in Israel, a missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted” before “crossing into Israeli territory,” a military statement said.
In a later statement, it said a drone “that was on its way to Israeli territory from the east was intercepted” by the air force.
Yemen, large parts of which are under the control of the Iran-backed Houthis, is located to Israel’s southeast.
Other countries to Israel’s east include Iraq, where Tehran-aligned militants have claimed a number of attacks targeting Israel since the Gaza war began.
The Houthis have repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023 in what they say is a show of solidarity with the Palestinians.
The militants have also targeted ships they accuse of having ties to Israel as they travel on the Red Sea — a vital waterway for global trade.
They had temporarily paused their attacks during a recent two-month ceasefire in Gaza.
According to Israel’s army radio, the missile intercepted overnight was the 22nd fired by the Houthis since they had resumed their attacks as Israel renewed its Gaza offensive on March 18.
Since March 15, Israel’s key ally the United States has stepped up its attacks on the Houthis, targeting militants positions in Yemen with near-daily air strikes.


Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 17

Israel's military said Thursday that the initial findings from an investigation into the death of a UN worker in the central Gaz
Updated 26 April 2025
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Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 17

  • Witnesses reported an estimated 20 victims trapped beneath the rubble.
  • Hamas says open to 5-year Gaza truce, one-time hostages release

GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli strikes on Saturday killed at least 17 people across the territory, while more trapped under the rubble after a family home was hit.
Israel resumed its military campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month truce that had largely halted the fighting.
“Israeli air strikes in several areas killed 17 people since dawn,” civil defense official Mohammed Al-Mughayyir told AFP.
A strike on the house of Al-Khour family in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood killed 10 people, Mughayyir said, with witnesses reporting an estimated 20 victims trapped beneath the rubble.
Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defense agency, had earlier said that about 30 people were missing under the rubble.
Umm Walid Al-Khour, who survived the attack, said that “everyone was sleeping with their children” when the strike hit.
“The house collapsed on top of us,” she told AFP.
“Those who survived cried for help but nobody came... Most of the deceased were children.”
AFP footage showed rescuers searching under the rubble as a wounded man was pulled out from the debris.
Elsewhere in the city, three people were killed in Israeli shelling of a house in the Al-Shati refugee camp, Mughayyir said.
More strikes across the Gaza Strip killed four others.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
 

Hamas says open to 5-year Gaza truce

Hamas is open to an agreement to end the war in Gaza that would see all hostages released and secure a five-year truce, an official said Saturday ahead of talks with mediators.
A Hamas delegation was in Cairo to discuss with Egyptian mediators ways out of the 18-month war, as on the ground rescuers said an Israeli strike on a family home in Gaza City killed at least 10 people and left more feared buried under the rubble.
The Hamas official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the Palestinian militant group “is ready for an exchange of prisoners in a single batch and a truce for five years.”
The latest bid to seal a ceasefire follows an Israeli proposal which Hamas had rejected earlier this month as “partial,” calling instead for a “comprehensive” agreement to halt the war ignited by the group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
The Israeli offer included a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for the return of 10 living hostages.
Hamas has consistently demanded that a truce deal must lead to an end to the war, a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a surge in humanitarian aid into the besieged territory — where on Friday the United Nations warned food stocks were running out.
Israel, for its part, demands the return of all hostages seized in the 2023 attack, and Hamas’s disarmament, which the group has rejected as a “red line.”
More than a month into a renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza after a two-month truce, a Hamas official said earlier this week that its delegation in Cairo would discuss “new ideas” on a ceasefire.