US vows ‘unrelenting’ campaign to halt Huthi ship attacks

WASHINGTON: US officials on Sunday vowed further strikes in Yemen until the Huthi rebels decide to end their attacks on Red Sea shipping, while also threatening action against the group´s backer Iran.

In a wave of strikes on Saturday, the first against the rebel group since US President Donald Trump returned to office in January, several Huthi leaders were killed, the White House said. The airstrikes “actually targeted multiple Huthi leaders and took them out,” National Security Adviser Michael Waltz told ABC News.

He added that the United States “will hold not only the Huthis accountable, but we´re going to hold Iran, their backers, accountable as well.” “And if that means their targeting ships that they have put in to help, their Iranian trainers... other things that they have put in to help the Huthis attack the global economy, those targets will be on the table too.”

In a separate appearance on Fox News, he said the strikes “put Iran on notice that enough is enough.” The US strikes killed at least 31 people and wounded 101, the Yemeni rebel group´s health ministry said on Sunday.The head of Iran´s Revolutionary Guards on Sunday threatened “decisive” responses to any attacks, after US President Donald Trump warned the Islamic republic to stop backing Yemen´s Huthi rebels.

“Iran will not wage war, but if anyone threatens, it will give appropriate, decisive and conclusive responses,” Hossein Salami said in a televised speech that followed deadly US strikes on Yemen.

The Tehran-backed group, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, staunchly oppose Israel and the United States and say the shipping attacks are in protest of Israel´s war in Gaza.

The Huthis have launched scores of drone and missile attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since the outbreak of the war, which was spurred by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

US warships have been attacked 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times since 2023, according to the Pentagon, putting a major strain on a sea route that normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic.

Trump, in a lengthy Truth Social post on Saturday announcing the latest attacks, warned Huthi leaders that “YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON´T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!”

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth echoed that message on Sunday, vowing an “unrelenting” missile campaign until the Huthi attacks stop.

“I want to be very clear, this campaign is about freedom of navigation and restoring deterrence,” Hegseth said in a televised Fox Business interview. “The minute the Huthis 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.”

Yemen has seen over a decade of civil war, with the Huthis controlling the capital Sanaa since 2014.

Hegseth, in blunt terms, said the United States was not seeking to get involved in a long Middle East war. “We don´t care what happens in the Yemeni civil war,” he said.