US strikes Houthi-held city in Yemen after Trump warns of ‘great force’ against retaliation

Hours after US President Donald Trump’s warning, Houthi media reported fresh US air strikes on Monday (March 17). As per a report by the news agency AFP, the US targeted rebel-held Hodeida on Yemen’s western coast.

“A strike by the American aggression targeted the region of Bajel in the Hodeida governorate,” while others targeted a steel factory in the Al-Salif region in the same governorate, according to the Houthi’s Saba press agency. 

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The US strike comes after Trump warned that “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.”

Trump also claimed that Iran was behind every airstrike and attack by Houthi rebels, saying, “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.“

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Earlier on Monday, Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for attacking a US aircraft carrier group twice within 24 hours. 

A spokesperson for the Houthis, posting on Telegram, said that the strikes were carried out in response to “the continued American aggression against our country.”

According to Yemen’s Houthi-controlled health ministry, American airstrikes on Saturday resulted in 53 deaths, including women and children, while 98 others sustained injuries.

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(With inputs from agencies)