SANA’A, (PIC)
At the behest of president Donald Trump, the US army launched deadly strikes on Yemen, killing at least 31 people, mostly women and children.
The attacks come after Yemen’s Ansarullah group (Houthis) recently threatened to resume attacks on Israel-linked ships in the Red Sea to pressure the Israeli occupation regime to end its tight blockade on the Gaza Strip, which is now in its third week.
The US attacks, which began on Saturday and continued into the predawn hours of Sunday, on the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, as well as on Saada City and other areas, claimed the lives of 31 civilians and wounded 101 — “most of them were children and women,” spokesman for Yemen’s health ministry Anis al-Asbahi posted on X.
According to official sources in Sana’a, the airstrikes and missile launches from US warships in the Red Sea began on Saturday evening, under the direct orders of Trump.
They said that the attacks initially targeted Sana’a and then expanded to include the cities of Saada, Dhamar, Marib and Taiz, adding that more than 40 strikes took place.
The US attacks also caused extensive damage to homes and public and private facilities in the bombed areas.
The political bureau of Ansarullah issued a statement, describing the US attacks as a “war crime” and vowed to respond.
“The aggression will not go unanswered,” the political bureau said. “Our Yemeni armed forces are fully prepared to respond to escalation with escalation.”
Ansarullah, who control much of northern Yemen, have yet to attack any ships despite threatening to do so last week over Israel’s blockade on all food, fuel and other supplies into Gaza.
In a statement, a spokesman for Ansarullah accused the US of overstating the threat to shipping operations to influence public opinion.
“What the US president claims about a threat to international navigation in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait is false and misleading to international public opinion,” spokesman Mohamed Abdul-Salam said.
“The maritime embargo declared by Yemen in support of Gaza is limited only to Israeli navigation until humanitarian aid is delivered to the people of Gaza, according to the ceasefire agreement between the Palestinian resistance and the enemy entity,” he added.
Meanwhile, Trump, who supervised the military aggression against Yemen, threatened that “hell will rain down” on the Houthis.
“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,” Trump said in a statement on Truth Social (his social media site).
“I have ordered the US military today to launch a decisive and powerful military operation against … Yemen,” he said, adding that Washington “will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective.”
The Ansarullah group has launched dozens of attacks targeting shipping since November 2023, following Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, disrupting global commerce and setting the US army on a costly campaign to intercept Yemeni missiles and drones that burned through stocks of US air defenses. However, the group halted its strikes during the ceasefire talks over Gaza.
