The United States will continue to strike Yemen’s Houthi rebels until they end attacks on international shipping, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday.
“I want to be very clear, this campaign is about freedom of navigation and restoring deterrence,” Hegseth said in an interview for the Fox Business broadcaster.
“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,” he added.
US President Donald Trump, posting on social media, also vowed to “use overwhelming lethal force” to end the Houthi attacks.
“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!” he wrote.
Trump added a warning to Iran, demanding that Tehran “immediately” end its support for the rebel group.
Houthis claim to target US ships in Red Sea
The Houthis reported explosions in areas under their control Saturday night and early Sunday. The Houthi-run health ministry said early Sunday that the death toll had risen to 53, including women and children, with another 101 people wounded.
The Houthis claimed responsibility for a second attack on an American aircraft carrier group in 24 hours, saying it was a retaliation for the US strikes in Yemen.
A spokesperson for the group said that it had launched missiles and drones at the USS Harry S. Truman and several of its warships in the northern Red Sea.
After the Houthis claimed responsibility for the first attack, a US official told Reuters that F-16 and F-18 fighter jets shot down a total of 11 drones. The US military also tracked a Houthi missile that failed and splashed down in Yemen, the official added.
Earlier, the rebels vowed further escalation. Rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said that Houthi militants would target US ships in the Red Sea as long as the US continues its attacks on Yemen.
“If they continue their aggression, we will continue the escalation,” he said in a televised speech.
Al-Houthi also called for a “million-strong” rally of defiance across rebel-held areas on Monday, the anniversary of a celebrated military victory by the Prophet Mohammed in the seventh century.
How did the world react to the strikes?
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for “utmost restraint and a cessation of all military activities” in Yemen.
Guterres also warned new escalation could “fuel cycles of retaliation that may further destabilise Yemen and the region, and pose grave risks to the already dire humanitarian situation in the country,” his spokesperson said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, General Hossein Salami, denied that his country was involved in the Houthi attacks, while Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, writing on X, urged the US to halt its airstrikes and said Washington cannot dictate Iran’s foreign policy.
Russia also urged the US to stop the strikes. Foreign Minister Sergey 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,” Moscow said.
The Houthis launched numerous attacks on shipping after Israel’s war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
