The United States under President Donald Trump has launched a new campaign of intense airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The strikes over the weekend killed at least 53 people, including children, and wounded others. The campaign is likely to continue, part of a wider pressure campaign by Trump now targeting the Houthis’ main benefactor, Iran, as well.

The Houthi rebels attacked over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors, from November 2023 until January this year. Their leadership described the attacks as aiming to end the Israeli war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The campaign also greatly raised the Houthis’ profile in the wider Arab world and tamped down on public criticism against their human rights abuses and crackdowns on dissent and aid workers.

Trump, writing on his social media platform Truth Social, said his administration targeted the Houthis over their “unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence and terrorism.” He noted the disruption Houthi attacks have caused through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, key waterways for energy and cargo shipments between Asia and Europe through Egypt’s Suez Canal.

 “We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective,” Trump said.

Under former President Joe Biden, the US and the United Kingdom began a series of airstrikes against the Houthis starting in January 2024. A December report by The International Institute for Strategic Studies said the US and its partners struck the Houthis over 260 times up to that point.

US military officials during that period acknowledged having a far-wider target list for possible strikes. While the Biden administration didn’t go too far into explaining its targeting, analysts believe officials largely were trying to avoid civilian casualties and not rekindle Yemen’s stalemated war, which pits the Houthis and their allies against the country’s exiled government and their local and international allies, like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Trump administration, however, appears willing to go after more targets, based on the weekend’s strikes and public remarks made by officials.

“We’re doing the entire world a favour by getting rid of these guys and their ability to strike global shipping,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS News’ “Face The Nation” on Sunday.

“That’s the mission here, and it will continue until that’s carried out.”

Rubio added, “Some of the key people involved in those missile launches are no longer with us, and I can tell you that some of the facilities that they used are no longer existing, and that will continue.”

Israel also launched its own airstrikes on Houthi-held sites, including the port city of Hodeida, over the rebels’ missile and drone attacks targeting Israel.

The Houthis said last week they’ll again target “Israeli” ships traveling through Mideast waterways like the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, because of Israel’s blocking of aid to the Gaza Strip. No rebel attack targeting commercial shipping has been reported as of Monday morning.

However, the new US campaign likely could inspire Houthi attacks at sea or on land beyond American warships. The rebels previously targeted oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two countries deeply involved in Yemen’s war since 2015.

Erizia Rubyjeana

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