DUBAI: US President Donald Trump threatened Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Wednesday that they’ll be “completely annihilated” as American airstrikes pounded locations under their control, while further pressuring the group’s main benefactor Iran.
Strikes hit Sanaa, Yemen’s Houthi-held capital, as well as their stronghold of Saada in the country’s northwest on Wednesday night, the Houthi’s Al-Masirah satellite news channel reported. It aired footage showing firefighters battling a blaze in Sanaa and damaged at what it described as a sheep farm in Al-Jawf.
It also said strikes happened overnight Tuesday, though the US military has not offered a breakdown of places targeted since the airstrikes campaign began. The first strikes this weekend killed at least 53 people, including children, and wounded others.
Three residents said that the strikes had hit the Al-Jarraf district of Sanaa, close to the city’s airport.
As the strikes hit, Trump wrote on his Truth Social website that “tremendous damage has been inflicted upon the Houthi barbarians.”
“Watch how it will get progressively worse — It’s not even a fair fight, and never will be,” Trump added. “They will be completely annihilated!”
Meanwhile, Trump again warned Iran not to arm the Houthis, claiming without offering evidence that Tehran “has lessened its intensity on Military Equipment and General Support to the Houthis.”
“Iran must stop the sending of these Supplies IMMEDIATELY,” he wrote.
Iran has long armed the Houthis, who are members of the Shiite Zaydi sect that ruled Yemen for 1,000 years until 1962. Tehran routinely denies arming the rebels, despite physical evidence, numerous seizures and experts tying the weapons to Iran. The United Nations has an existing arms embargo on the Houthis.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency acknowledged Trump’s comments and cited remarks previously made by Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeed Iravani, that said Trump made “baseless accusations.”
Unfazed by the US strikes and threats, the Houthis have said they will escalate their attacks, including on Israel, in response to the US campaign.
On Tuesday the Houthis said they had fired a ballistic missile toward Israel and that they would expand their range of targets in that country in the coming days in retaliation for renewed Israeli airstrikes in Gaza after weeks of relative calm.
The Houthis have carried out over 100 attacks on shipping since Israel’s war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians.
The attacks have disrupted global commerce and set the US military off on a costly campaign to intercept missiles.
Meanwhile Thursday, the Houthi-controlled SABA news agency acknowledged the Houthi forces had been taking food aid out of a World Food Program warehouse without permission. It said it took about 20 percent of the aid on hand out.
The UN in February suspended its operations in Saada over security concerns following the detentions of dozens of UN workers and others. One WFP staffer died while imprisoned by the Houthis.
