Key Points
- Yemen's health ministry said the US airstrikes have killed at least 31 people.
- The US says it will continue to strike Yemen until attacks on shipping end.
- Yemen's Houthis say they are prepared to escalate the attacks.
The United States will keep attacking until they end attacks on shipping, the US defence secretary said on Sunday, as the Iran-aligned group signalled it could escalate in response to deadly US strikes the day before.
The airstrikes, which Yemen's health ministry said killed at least 31 people, are the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since US President Donald Trump took office in January.
One US official told Reuters the campaign might continue for weeks.
The Houthi movement's political bureau described the attacks as a "war crime" and said Houthi forces were ready to "meet escalation with escalation," while Russia urged the US to cease the strikes.
The Houthis' military spokesperson said on Sunday, without offering evidence, that the group had targeted US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and its warships in the Red Sea with ballistic missiles and drones in response to the US attacks.
A US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters, dismissed the claims, saying they were not aware of any Houthi attack on the Truman.
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures: "The minute the Houthis 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."
"This is about stopping the shooting at assets ... in that critical waterway, to reopen freedom of navigation, which is a core national interest of the United States, and Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long," he said. "They better back off."
The Houthis, who have taken control of most of Yemen over the past decade, said last week they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea if Israel did not lift a block on aid entering Gaza.
Yemen's Health Ministry said the overnight strikes killed at least 31 people, including women and children, and wounded over 100 in the capital Sanaa and the northern province Saada, the rebels' stronghold near the Saudi border. Credit: Al Masirah TV / AP
Trump also told Iran, the Houthis' main backer, to stop supporting 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!"
The Houthi attacks on shipping have disrupted global commerce and set the US military off on a costly campaign to intercept missiles and drones.
But on 12 March, the Houthis said their threat to attack Israeli ships would remain in effect until Israel reapproved the delivery of aid and food into Gaza.
