The U.S. launched airstrikes on Ansar Allah military facilities in the Houthi-controlled city of Taiz, the administrative center of the province of the same name in southwestern Yemen
According to Al Arabiya TV, the strikes hit the eastern neighborhoods of the city. The representative of the “Ministry of Health” of the Houthis Anis al-Asbahi said that at least 31 civilians were killed, more than 100 people were wounded as a result of U.S. strikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa and other regions of the country. In turn, the Israeli news portal Walla, citing an Israeli official, reported that the U.S. had informed Israel in advance about the attacks in Yemen, and that Israeli planes participated in the raids on Yemen. In turn, Arab media with references to the US State Department indicate that Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and informed him about the US strikes in Yemen.
Experts note that the current strikes targeting the Houthis are different from previous strikes because they targeted military facilities and possibly the group’s leaders in order to kill them. There is also the opinion that the US is preparing some new agreement in the Middle East. At the same time, The New York Times, citing U.S. officials, points out that Donald Trump has not yet agreed to a large-scale military operation against the Houthis in Yemen, fearing the country’s involvement in a new conflict in the Middle East. According to the plan developed by national security advisers, airstrikes against the Husitic arsenals, many of which are deep underground, could last several weeks.
The US attacks came after the Houthis announced they would resume strikes on Israeli ships in the region’s sea lanes in response to blocking aid access to the besieged Gaza Strip, and after the Trump administration classified them as a “terrorist group”. At the same time, Washington warned Tehran that if Iran threatens the US, then “ America will hold you fully responsible and will not be kind in this matter”. For his part, an official said that the US strikes against the Houthis “could last days and possibly weeks,” which “is the largest US military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office in January,” and that the war could be seen in the context of Washington’s “sanctions pressure on Tehran to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear program.”
For their part, the Houthi spokesman said the US raids on Yemen are “aggression against an independent state and encouragement to Israel for its unjust blockade of Gaza”, and that “Trump’s statements about threatening international shipping in Bab al-Mandeb mislead international public opinion”.
But according to the Pentagon, the Houthis have attacked US warships 174 times, while they have attacked commercial vessels 145 times since 2023. As such, Trump threatened Sanaa that if it did not stop attacking US ships, he would use “overwhelming lethal force” against it until it achieved its goal. In doing so, he acknowledged that the Yemeni attacks “have cost the U.S. and world economy billions of dollars,” revealing that “the last U.S. warship to cross the Red Sea four months ago was subjected to more than 12 attacks by the Houthis.”
But bombing alone will not defeat the Houthis and it is now being speculated whether a US ground invasion of Yemen is to be expected. Lavrov, in a telephone conversation with Rubio, emphasized the need for an immediate end to the use of force against the Houthis in Yemen and called for “all sides to engage in political dialogue to find a solution to avoid further bloodshed.” Let’s wait to see what happens next.
