CAIRO (AP) 鈥 The United States and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are both vowing escalation after the U.S. launched airstrikes to deter the rebels from attacking military and commercial vessels on one of the world's busiest shipping corridors.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to have these people controlling which ships can go through and which ones cannot. And so your question is, how long will this go on? It will go on until they no longer have the capability to do that," Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS on Sunday. He said these are not the one-off retaliation strikes the Biden administration carried out after Houthi attacks.
President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to use 鈥渙verwhelming lethal force鈥 until the Houthis cease their attacks, and warned that would be held 鈥渇ully accountable鈥 for their actions.
The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea, , in what they call acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally.
The attacks stopped when a Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in January 鈥 a day before Trump took office 鈥 but last week the Houthis said they would renew attacks against Israeli vessels after Israel this month.
There have been no Houthi attacks reported since then.
The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the overnight U.S. strikes killed at least 31 people, including women and children, and wounded over 100 in the capital of Sanaa and the northern province of Saada, the rebels鈥 stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia.
The airstrikes were one of the most extensive attacks against the Houthis since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.
Trump鈥檚 national security adviser, Michael Waltz, on Sunday told ABC that the strikes 鈥渁ctually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out.鈥 He didn't identify them or give evidence. Rubio said some Houthi facilities had been destroyed.
The Houthis鈥 political bureau has said the rebels will respond to the U.S. strikes and 鈥渕eet escalation with escalation.鈥
The rebels on Sunday claimed to have targeted the carrier strike group with missiles and a drone, but two U.S. officials told The Associated Press they were not tracking anything. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.
The spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement called for 鈥渦tmost restraint and a cessation of all military activities,鈥 while warning of the 鈥済rave risks鈥 to the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen, the Arab world鈥檚 poorest nation.
Rubio said that over the past 18 months the Houthis had attacked the U.S. Navy 鈥渄irectly鈥 174 times and targeted commercial shipping 145 times using 鈥済uided precision anti-ship weaponry.鈥
The attacks sparked the most serious combat the U.S. Navy had seen since World War II.
On Sunday, the head of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, denied his country was involved in the Houthis' attacks, saying it 鈥減lays no role in setting the national or operational policies鈥 of across the region, according to state-run TV.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, writing on X, urged the U.S. to halt its airstrikes and said Washington cannot dictate Iran's foreign policy.
The U.S. and others have long accused Iran of to the rebels. The U.S. Navy has seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weaponry it said was bound for the Houthis.
The United States, Israel and Britain previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen, but the new operation was conducted solely by the U.S. It was the first strike on the Houthis under the second Trump administration.
The USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group, which includes the carrier, three Navy destroyers and one cruiser, is in the Red Sea and was part of the mission. The USS Georgia cruise missile submarine has also been operating in the region.
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Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, and Tara Copp and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
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