by WorldTribune Staff, March 16, 2025 Real World News
Warning that “hell will rain down upon” the Houthi terrorist organization, President Donald Trump ordered strikes against the Iran-backed group on Sunday.
The Houthis claimed at least 31 people were killed in Sunday’s strikes. On March 17, Trump underlined that Iran was the sponsor of Houthi attacks on Western shipping.
U.S. Central Command, which posted videos of fighter jets taking off and a bomb demolishing a compound, said “precision strikes” were launched to “defend American interests, deter enemies, and restore freedom of navigation.”
Related: Has a secret Trump-Putin deal backed Iran regime into a corner?, March 11, 2025
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the Houthis had “attacked U.S. warships 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times since 2023.”
Trump said in a statement posted to Truth Social:
Today, I have ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen. They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones.
Joe Biden’s response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going. It has been over a year since a U.S. flagged commercial ship safely sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden. The last American Warship to go through the Red Sea, four months ago, was attacked by the Houthis over a dozen times. Funded by Iran, the Houthi thugs have fired missiles at U.S. aircraft, and targeted our Troops and Allies. These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk.
The Houthi attack on American vessels will not be tolerated. We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective. The Houthis have choked off shipping in one of the most important Waterways of the World, grinding vast swaths of Global Commerce to a halt, and attacking the core principle of Freedom of Navigation upon which International Trade and Commerce depends.
Our brave Warfighters are right now carrying out aerial attacks on the terrorists’ bases, leaders, and missile defenses to protect American shipping, air, and naval assets, and to restore Navigational Freedom. No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World.
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!
To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY! Do NOT threaten the American People, their President, who has received one of the largest mandates in Presidential History, or Worldwide shipping lanes. If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!
The Houthis, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the United States.
On March 17, Trump posted:
Let nobody be fooled! The hundreds of attacks being made by Houthi, the sinister mobsters and thugs based in Yemen, who are hated by the Yemeni people, all emanate from, and are created by, IRAN. Any further attack or retaliation by the “Houthis” will be met with great force, and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there. Iran has played “the innocent victim” of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control. They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, “Intelligence.” Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on CBS’s “Face the Nation:” “This is not a one-off. This is an effort to deny them the ability to continue to constrict and control shipping, and it’s just not going to happen. We’re not going to have these guys, these people with weapons able to tell us where our ships can go – where the ships of all the world can go, by the way. It’s not just the U.S. We’re doing the world a favor.”
Rubio added that attack was also a “message to Iran: Don’t keep supporting them, because then you will also be responsible for what they are doing in attacking Navy ships and attacking global shipping.”
Related: Trump doctrine returns with call to Saudis, designation of Houthis as terrorists , January 28, 2025
“Our Yemeni armed forces are fully prepared to confront escalation with escalation,” the Houthi political bureau said.
The Houthis vowed the strikes “will not pass without response,” while Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi condemned the deaths and said Washington had “no authority” to dictate Teheran’s foreign policy.
The U.S. attacks hit the capital Sanaa, as well as on areas in Saada, Al-Bayda and Radaa, Houthi health ministry spokesperson Anis Al-Asbahi said.
The Houthi Ansarullah website slammed what it called Washington’s “criminal brutality”.
The U.S., Israel and Britain have previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen, but Saturday’s operation was conducted solely by the U.S. It was the first strike on the Houthis under the second Trump administration.
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Update: After warnings, Trump drops hammer on Houthis in Yemen, blames Iran added by Editor Two on
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