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Houthis say they are ready to escalate after US strikes Yemen

WASHINGTON/ADEN, Yemen – Yemen’s Houthi movement said on March 16 it was ready to “meet escalation with escalation” after US strikes targeting the Iran-aligned group over its threat to resume Red Sea shipping attacks triggered a diplomatic backlash from Moscow and Tehran.

The strikes – which killed at least 31 people at the start of a campaign that one US official told Reuters might continue for weeks – are the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January.

The Houthis’ political bureau described the attacks as a “war crime”.

“Our Yemeni armed forces are fully prepared to respond to escalation with escalation,” it said in a statement.

Mr Trump also warned Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, that it needed to end support for 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!”

In response, the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the Houthis took their own strategic and operational decisions and Tehran would react decisively to any action against it.

“We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they take their threats into action,” Hossein Salami told state media.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to urge an “immediate cessation of the use of force and the importance for all sides to engage in political dialogue”, Russia’s foreign ministry said on March 16.

Mr Lavrov’s call to halt the strikes came as Mr Trump has been pressing Moscow to sign a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, which Ukraine accepted last week, but Russia has said needs to be reworked.

Mr Trump is also trying to bring Tehran to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme, while also ramping up sanctions pressure.

‘Like an earthquake’

Most of the 31 people confirmed killed in the US strikes were women and children, Mr Anees al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry said in an updated toll on March 16. More than 100 were injured, he said.

Residents in Sanaa said the strikes hit a neighbourhood known to host several members of the Houthi leadership.

“The explosions were violent and shook the neighbourhood like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children,” one of the residents, who gave his name as Abdullah Yahia, told Reuters.

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, wrapped in plastic sheets, were placed in a yard, Reuters footage showed.

Strikes also targeted Houthi military sites in Yemen’s south-western city of Taiz, two witnesses said on March 16.

Another strike on a power station in the town of Dahyan in Saada led to a power cut, Al-Masirah TV reported early on March 16. Dahyan is where Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the enigmatic leader of the Houthis, often meets visitors.

Red Sea attacks

The Houthis, an armed movement that took control of most of Yemen over the past decade, said last week they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through Red Sea shipping lanes off Yemen if Israel did not lift a block on aid into Gaza.

The Houthis had launched scores of attacks targeting shipping from November 2023, saying they were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

The attacks disrupted global commerce and set the US military off on a costly campaign to intercept missiles and drones that have burned through stocks of US air defences.

The group has not launched new strikes on Red Sea shipping since it halted attacks when Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza in January.

But on March 12, the Houthis’ military spokesperson said the Houthi threat to attack Israeli ships would remain in effect until Israel resumed the delivery of aid and food into Gaza.

The previous US administration of then-President Joe Biden had sought to degrade the Houthis’ ability to attack vessels off its coast but limited the US actions.

US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say Mr Trump has authorised a more aggressive approach.

“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!” Mr Trump posted late on March 15 on his Truth Social platform.

Strikes across Yemen

The US military’s Central Command, which oversees troops in the Middle East, described Saturday’s strikes as the start of a large-scale operation across Yemen.

The strikes were carried out in part by fighter aircraft from the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, which is in the Red Sea, officials said.

“Houthi attacks on American ships; aircraft (and our troops!) will not be tolerated; and Iran, their benefactor, is on notice,” Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X.

Iran’s foreign ministry condemned strikes on Yemen as a “gross violation of the principles of the United Nations Charter and the fundamental rules of international law”.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the US government had “no authority, or business, dictating Iranian foreign policy”.

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, also backed by Iran, expressed solidarity with the Houthis on March 16: “This barbaric aggression constitutes a war crime and a flagrant violation of international law and norms,” a statement by the group said. REUTERS

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