President Trump announced Saturday afternoon he has ordered the U.S. military to take “launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen.”
Last month the Houthis launched unsuccessful surface to air missile attacks on U.S. aircraft flying over the Red Sea.
Unsourced and unverified viral videos and photos posted to social media purport to show large explosions across Yemen on Saturday.
BREAKING: Under President Trump’s orders, the U.S Navy’s Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group carried out an attack on a Houthi target in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen.
The strikes targeted the Houthis’ drones, air defenses, and missiles to free up Red Sea shipping lanes. pic.twitter.com/PQbjA7Gr19
— Intel Tower (@inteltower) March 15, 2025
President Trump takes on the Houthis pic.twitter.com/KNCPw4UHZc
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) March 15, 2025
For over a year, the Iranian backed Houthis, formally known as Ansarallah, have repeatedly attacked U.S. Navy ships and international commercial shipping (except Chinese ships) in support of Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, hindering maritime traffic in the Suez Canal, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The Biden administration refused to take decisive action, instead playing defense allowing the Houthis to interfere with the freedom of the seas.
Earlier this week, the State Department followed-up on President Trump’s announcement in January, re-designating the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization four years after Joe Biden reversed Trump’s first term terrorist designation of the Houthis. In January 2024, Biden took a half-step on the Houthis, labeling the group “specially designated global terrorists,” instead of the stronger FTO designation.
Promises Made, Promises Kept. Ansarallah, commonly referred to as the Houthis, is now designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, following their hundreds of attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The Trump Administration is committed to… pic.twitter.com/RsVQNOdKMN
— Department of State (@StateDept) March 10, 2025
Trump’s 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!
Excerpt from a report by the New York Times on Trump’s ordered attacks:
The United States began to carry out large-scale military strikes on Saturday against dozens of targets in Yemen controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, according to local news reports and two senior U.S. officials. It was the opening salvo in what American officials said was a new offensive against the militants.
Air and naval strikes ordered by President Trump hit radars, air defenses, and missile and drone systems in an effort to open international shipping lanes in the Red Sea that the Houthis have disrupted for months with their own attacks. The Biden administration conducted several similar strikes against the Houthis but largely failed to restore deterrence in the region.
U.S. officials said the bombardment, the most significant military action of Mr. Trump’s second term, was also meant to send a warning signal to Iran. Mr. Trump wants to broker a deal with Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but has left open the possibility of military action if the Iranians rebuff negotiations.
U.S. officials said that airstrikes against the Houthis’ arsenal, much of which is buried deep underground, could last for several days, intensifying in scope and scale depending on the militants’ reaction. U.S. intelligence agencies have struggled in the past to identify and locate the Houthi weapons systems, which the rebels produce in subterranean factories and smuggle in from Iran.
Some national security aides want to pursue an even more aggressive campaign that would lead the Houthis to essentially lose control of large parts of the country’s north, U.S. officials said. But Mr. Trump has not yet authorized that strategy, wary of entangling the United States in a Middle East conflict he pledged to avoid during his campaign.
…The strikes were carried out by fighter jets from the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman, now in the northern Red Sea, as well as by Air Force attack planes and armed drones launched from bases in the region, U.S. officials said.
On Friday, President Trump announced U.S. forces attacked and killed an ISIS leader in Iraq, “Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed. He was relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters. His miserable life was terminated, along with another member of ISIS, in coordination with the Iraqi Government and the Kurdish Regional Government. PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!”
TGP report at this link: Peace Through Strength: U.S. Forces Eliminate ISIS Global Operations Chief and Second-in-Command in Precision Airstrike
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