President Donald Trump ordered a wave of new U.S. strikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen on March 15, ramping up a fight that has been simmering for months.
“Today, I have ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen. They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones,” Trump announced in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
A short while after Trump’s announcement, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) shared footage of F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets launching from the deck of an aircraft carrier, which they said would deliver precision airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. Further footage from CENTCOM showed land-attack cruise missiles firing from a guided missile warship, and ordinance landing on an unspecified target.
The Persistent Houthi Movement
The Houthi movement, also known as Ansar Allah, first emerged in Yemen in the 1990s. A Shia Islamist movement, the Houthis grew in opposition to the existing government of the Republic of Yemen. These tensions boiled over in the fall 2014, as the Houthis took control over the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a with little to no resistance.
The Houthis briefly shared power with the existing government structure, but then-Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and other members of his government resigned, leaving the Houthis as the dominant force in Sana’a. Hadi later fled to the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, where he formed a new government in exile.
Yemen has remained in a state of disunity since 2014. In that time, the Houthis have maintained control over Sana’a while their opponents have fractured into a variety of competing factions loosely aligned with Hadi.
The Yemeni civil war quickly became a proxy battle for regional influence. Saudi Arabia formed and led a coalition of other Arab states to intervene against the Houthis, meanwhile Iran has provided clandestine support to those Shia rebels.
The United States has provided support to the Saudi coalition. Toward the end of his first term in office, Trump also had the Houthis designated as a foreign terrorist organization and as a specially designated global terrorist group.
Within days of taking the White House, President Joe Biden undid the two terror group labels.
Though still ongoing, the fighting of the Yemeni civil war has subsided in recent years.
After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Houthis turned their attention outward.
As Israeli forces began bombarding the Gaza Strip, the Houthis started launching missiles and attack drones at Israel, and claimed they would continue this pattern of attacks as long as Israeli forces continued to fight in Gaza. The Houthis also began to target commercial ships in the nearby waterways, including the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, slowing international shipping through a key chokepoint.
After Israel and Hamas reached a temporary ceasefire in January, the Houthi attacks stopped. Now, amid signs this ceasefire could collapse, the Houthis have threatened to once again attack Israeli ships in the region.
Trump Ramping Up Pressure
As the Houthis turned their fire on Israel and the Red Sea last year, the Biden administration relisted the group as a specially designated global terrorist entity. Though the Biden administration did not restore the foreign terrorist organization label, they did order several rounds of U.S. airstrikes targeting Houthi facilities and weapons stockpiles throughout Yemen.
Despite these U.S. strikes, Houthi attacks during the Biden administration continued. The Yemeni rebel faction even began to return fire on U.S. warships in the region.
Though Houthi missiles and drones have yet to clearly land a successful hit on a U.S. warship or aircraft, the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg accidentally shot down a U.S. F/A-18 Super Hornet in a friendly fire incident in December, as the ship mistook U.S. fighter jets returning from strikes over Yemen as an incoming Houthi threat.
In his Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump accused Biden of doing too little to deter the Yemeni rebels.
“Joe Biden’s response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going. It has been over a year since a U.S. flagged commercial ship safely sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden,” Trump wrote.
Since returning to the White House for his second term, Trump has ordered that the Houthis should once again be listed as a foreign terrorist organization.
On March 15, as he ordered the newest round of U.S. strikes on Yemen, Trump issued a new warning message.
“To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!” he wrote.
“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!”
On March 16, Houthi spokesman Nasr el-Din Amer told NBC News that the majority of the casualties from the latest round of U.S. strikes were women and children. Actual casualty figures from the strikes cannot be independently verified at this time.
Amer vowed the Houthis would continue their attacks “until the blockade on Gaza is lifted.” Further, he said the Yemeni rebel faction would respond to the latest round of U.S. strikes.
“We will respond to the recent escalation with further escalation,” he said. “Our response will not be delayed.”
This article was originally published by FreeBase News and is reprinted with permission.
