Cautious calm in Yemen after US strikes; Houthis vow 'painful' reply
A cautious calm was prevailing on Sunday in the capital Sana'a and other areas controlled by the Houthis in Yemen, hours after a series of US airstrikes that the Iranian-aligned militia said left at least 31 civilians dead.
US President Donald Trump ordered massive attacks on Saturday on the Houthis in several Yemeni provinces including Sana'a and the militia's stronghold of Sa'ada in the far north of the war-torn country.
The bombing also hit the area of al-Jiraf north of Sana'a where many Houthi leaders live, locals said. So far, there have been no confirmed deaths among them.
Houthi leaders have been advised against appearing in public places, sources close to the group said.
The militia had earlier issued a notice to government institutions under its control ordering workers not to share any information publicly about the locations of the Houthi leaders or their movements for security reasons.
The Saudi-owned television channel Al Arabiya reported that some Houthi leaders had left Sana'a for Sa'ada and the Amran province in north-western Yemen on safety grounds.
Some residents of the stricken areas recalled the horror they experienced during the US bombardment.
"We have been living through terrifying moments over the past few hours due to the violent US bombing, which shattered some of the windows in my house," Mohammed Amer, a resident of the Attan neighbourhood in Sana'a, told dpa.
He added that the strikes resulted in damage to houses and stores.
Attan is a military zone surrounded by several residential districts.
A spokesman for the Houthi-run Ministry of Health told dpa that the strikes had killed 31 civilians and injured 101 others.
The Houthis' ruling Supreme Political Council condemned the strikes and vowed a "professional and painful punishment."
Trump said the airstrikes targeted Houthi bases, leaders and missile defence sites in order to protect US shipping in the region and restore freedom of navigation.
Since the start of the conflict in the Gaza Strip in October 2023, the Houthi militia has repeatedly attacked Israel and international merchant ships in support of its ally, the Palestinian militant Hamas organization.
In response, Israel, the United States and Britain have repeatedly attacked Houthi targets in Yemen.
The Houthis stopped their attacks after a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was reached in January.
However, the Yemeni group earlier this week warned it will resume attacks on Israeli ships unless Israel reverses the blocking of aid deliveries into Gaza.
A senior Houthi official called the US strikes a "flagrant aggression" and an encouragement to Israel to continue "unjust siege" on Gaza.
"We confirm that international navigation in the Red Sea will remain safe from the Yemeni side. The US raids represent a return to the militarization of the Red Sea, which is the real threat to international navigation in the region," Mohammed Abdel-Salam, a Houthi spokesman wrote in a post on X.
The latest attacks are likely to continue for days or perhaps even weeks, US media quoted military representatives as saying.
"We have been living under war and bombing for 10 years, and what is the result? Nothing but more destruction and more civilian casualties," Siham Mohammed, a resident in Sana'a, said.
She called for "seriousness" about ending the Houthi presence, suggesting targeting their leaders and gathering sites.
Bombarding sites that have been targeted hundreds of times "will be of no use," Mohammed said.
The Houthi rebels control large parts of impoverished Yemen, which has been locked in a devastating conflict between the government and the militia since late 2014.
Washington reclassified the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization in early March.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
32 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
The Budget Bill Is Creating a Republican Existential Crisis
The Republican budget bill, a $3.7 trillion tax cut packaged with $1.2 trillion in spending cuts, is deeply problematic legislation from almost any perspective — including those of its authors. The Congressional Budget Office has the details about how it will be expensive and ineffectual. But for Republicans, President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' is creating what amounts to an existential crisis. For half a century, Republicans have been committed to the policy of lower taxes to aid the economy — impervious to any evidence that tax cuts are inefficient and prohibitively expensive. At this point, to walk away from the bill is to abandon their economic raison d'etre.
Associated Press
34 minutes ago
- Associated Press
EU finds 'indications' Israel is breaching their trade deal with its actions in Gaza
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union says there are ″indications″ that Israel's actions in Gaza are violating human rights obligations in its trade agreement with the EU, according to its findings seen by The Associated Press. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas presented the review to foreign minsters of the 27-member bloc in Brussels on Monday, leading at least one country to openly propose suspending the trade deal. 'There are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israel Associated Agreement,' according to the review by the EU's diplomatic corps, the European External Action Service. A third of Israel's imports come from the EU, valued at $27 billion annually, while Europe imports less than 1% of its goods from Israel, according to the EU Directorate-General for Trade and Economic Security. Suspending trade ties would require a unanimous decision, which is likely impossible to obtain from countries like Austria, Germany and Hungary that tend to back Israel. Other actions — such as ending visa-free travel to Europe for Israelis, sanctioning Israeli settlers in the West Bank or halting academic partnerships — could be pushed if a 'qualified majority' — 15 of the 27 nations representing at least 65% of the population of the EU — agree. Countries like the Netherlands, Ireland and Spain have been vocal in their support for the Palestinians in Gaza as Israel battles Hamas. 'When all the focus is on Iran and the escalation regarding Iran, we should not forget about Gaza,' said Dutch foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp, who led the charge for the review. Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostages. About 56,000 Palestinians have since been killed, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, and little relatively aid has entered since Israel ended the latest ceasefire in March. Outrage over Israel's actions in Gaza has grown in Europe as images of suffering Palestinians have driven protests in London, Berlin, Brussels, Madrid and Amsterdam. Spain has canceled arms deals with Israel and called for an arms embargo. Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares Bueno on Monday called for suspending the EU-Israel trade agreement. 'The time for words and declarations is behind. We had enough time,' he told the meeting. 'And at the same time, Palestinians in Gaza have no more time to lose. Every day, babies, women, men are being killed. This is the time for action.' Manuel Albares also called for an embargo on EU countries selling weapons to Israel and for the widening of individual sanctions on anyone undermining the proposed two-state solution. 'Europe must show courage,' he told journalists. ___ Associated Press writers Lorne Cooke in The Hague and Ella Joyner in Brussels contributed to this report.
The Hill
34 minutes ago
- The Hill
Leavitt: ‘High degree of confidence' strikes hit Iran's stored enriched uranium
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday the Trump administration has a 'high degree of confidence' that its strikes against Iran hit locations where enriched uranium was being stored amid questions about whether officials in Tehran had relocated the nation's stockpile. 'We are confident, yes, that Iran's nuclear sites were completely and totally obliterated, as the president said in his address to the nation on Saturday night,' Leavitt said on ABC. 'And we have a high degree of confidence that where those strikes took place is where Iran's enriched uranium was stored,' she added. 'The president wouldn't have launched the strikes if we weren't confident in that. So this operation was a resounding success.' The U.S. on Saturday struck three Iranian nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. President Trump described them in an address to the nation as 'completely and totally obliterated,' something he reiterated in a social media post late Sunday. But experts have acknowledged it would take time to determine the extent of the damage from U.S. strikes, and some reports raising the possibility that Iran moved some of its enriched uranium away from those sites ahead of the attack. 'Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,' Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said Sunday. The New York Times reported that there was evidence Iran had moved equipment and uranium from the Fordow site in recent days, citing two Israeli officials. The Times also cited text messages from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency indicating Iran had moved its uranium stockpile. Trump administration officials have maintained that the purpose of the strikes was to decimate Iran's nuclear program and severely curtail Tehran's ability to develop a nuclear weapon. 'We're not at war with Iran. We're at war with Iran's nuclear program,' Vice President Vance said Sunday on NBC News's 'Meet the Press.'
