US strikes on Yemeni port kill dozens, Houthis say

JERUSALEM — The latest round of U.S. airstrikes against the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen has killed dozens of people in bombardments targeting a port in the country’s northwest, the Houthis said Friday.

The strikes late Thursday were part of an escalating campaign by the Trump administration against the Yemeni militia. The Houthis have been firing rockets and drones at Israel in a campaign it says is in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as well as attacking ships in the nearby Red Sea.

The U.S. bombardment targeted the port of Ras Isa, a major fuel depot in the Houthi-controlled province of Hodeida. At least 74 people were killed and more than 150 others wounded, said Anees al-Asbahi, the spokesperson for the Houthi-run Health Ministry, adding that a search was still underway for missing victims.

The toll could not be independently verified, but the figure could make the U.S. strike one of the deadliest since President Donald Trump began escalating U.S. attacks on the Houthis in mid-March. More than 190 people have been killed since, al-Asbahi said.

U.S. officials have offered little information to the public on recent U.S. operations against the Houthis. The Department of Defense declined to comment on the reported death toll in Thursday’s attack.

Since entering office, Trump has ramped up efforts started by the Biden administration to degrade the Houthis, vowing that they will be “completely annihilated.” Since entering office, Trump has also tightened U.S. sanctions against the group and redesignated the militia as a “foreign terrorist organization.”

But the increasingly forceful U.S. strikes on the Houthis have yet to deter them from carrying out further attacks. In closed briefings, Pentagon officials have acknowledged that the heavy bombardment has had limited success in destroying the Houthis’ vast, largely underground arsenal, according to congressional aides and allies.

Meanwhile, the Houthis have said they would welcome a greater conflict with the U.S., their declared enemy.

Experts have also warned that attacking ports like Ras Isa could worsen the already dire conditions in Yemen. The United Nations has described the humanitarian crisis in the country as the world’s largest, with about 80% of the population in need of essential aid.

The bombing’s deadly toll plunged Hodeida into grief, said Manal Ahmad, 35, who lives in the city. She said she personally knew families who had lost loved ones, and social media was full of posts mourning those killed.

“We saw the images of the victims and the extent of the destruction,” Ahmad said in a phone interview. “What legitimate target are they talking about? Whatever the goal was — if there even was one — I don’t think it justifies the number of dead and wounded.”

The Houthis began their attacks on Israel after the war in Gaza began in October 2023, ignited by the Hamas-led attack on Israel. Most of the Houthi projectiles have been intercepted by Israeli air defenses, though a drone attack in July killed a man in Tel Aviv.

The Yemeni militants have also sought to enforce what they claim is a blockade on vessels with Israeli or American ties, menacing merchant ships passing through the Red Sea. In practice, the Houthis targeted ships with no clear connection to either country, upending global shipping and forcing boats to shirk the busy maritime corridor for a relatively little-used route around southern Africa instead.

In January 2024, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution demanding that the Houthis immediately stop attacking commercial ships. The United States and Britain subsequently began bombarding Houthi targets.

The militia briefly stopped firing rockets at Israel during a two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas this year. But after Israel ended the truce in mid-March with a renewed offensive in Gaza, the Houthis resumed firing ballistic missiles at Israeli territory.

Just a few hours after the U.S. strikes, early Friday morning, Houthi militants fired another missile at Israel. Air-raid sirens blared across the country’s heartland, instructing many Israelis to head to bomb shelters. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The U.S. military’s Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East, said it had targeted Ras Isa because shipments of fuel were still flowing into the port in defiance of U.S. sanctions, allowing funds to flow into Houthi coffers. It did not provide its own assessment of how many people were killed in the bombardment.

“U.S. forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue,” the military said in a statement. “This strike was not intended to harm the people of Yemen, who rightly want to throw off the yoke of Houthi subjugation and live peacefully.”

Hodeida’s ports are also the main conduit by which fuel, food and aid enter impoverished northern Yemen, where more than 20 million people live.

In the past, the U.N. and humanitarian groups have condemned the targeting of the port as damaging vital civilian infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia and its allies similarly cited the need to degrade the Houthis when the militia tried to take over Hodeida during their nearly decade-long war against the group.

Back then, the United States and other countries pressed the Saudis to stop, fearing a humanitarian disaster. A U.N.-mediated agreement halted the fighting around the city in 2018.

Israeli fighter jets have also bombed Yemen multiple times since the Houthis began attacking Israel in late 2023, at times flying over 1,000 miles to strike ports and power stations in Houthi-controlled territory.

The Houthis have vowed to continue attacking until Israel ends its military offensive in Gaza.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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