Trump orders attacks against Houthis in Yemen

CAIRO -- President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that he ordered the United States military to launch "decisive and powerful military action" against the Houthis in Yemen.

"They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones," Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, on March 15. "We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective."

A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News on Sunday that U.S. air and naval assets hit dozens of Houthi targets in Yemen, including missiles, radars, and drone and air defense systems. The official characterized the attacks as an opening salvo against the Houthis that sends a strong message to Iran.

A spokesman for Yemen's ministry of health said at least 53 people were killed and 98 were in injured in the strikes. He said most of the casualties were civilians, and the number of those killed and injured will be updated as rescue and recovery efforts continue.

The strikes are the largest and most significant military action that Trump has taken in his second term.

The attacks were carried out by fighter jets from the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, now in the northern Red Sea, as well as Air Force attack planes and armed drones launched from bases in the region, according to a source familiar with the plan.

Trump approved the plan on Friday, the source added.

The strikes that took place March 15 are the result of several high-level White House meetings last week between Trump and top national security aides, including Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Michael E. Kurilla.

The attacks could intensify in scope and scale depending on the Houthi reaction, a source familiar with the plan said.

The source stressed this is not expected to be a single-day event, adding, "This will be decisive."

The Houthis launched a retaliatory attack on the USS Harry S. Truman on Sunday, but it was unsuccessful, a U.S. official told ABC News. The official said the attacks may have lasted up to 12 hours.

After the initial attacks, the rebel group said in a statement on Monday local time that it had launched a second offensive on the U.S. ships in the Red Sea over the course of "several hours" and that it had "succeeded."

However, the reports of that incident and its outcome have yet to be externally verified.

Earlier in March, the Houthis warned they would resume attacking shipping vessels if Israel's blockade of aid in Gaza continued.

Trump also had a stark message for Iran, writing that its support for the Houthis must end "immediately." The president redesignated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization via an executive order in first days in office.

In a message to the Houthis, Trump threatened that if the attacks don't stop, then "hell will rain down upon you like nothing you have ever seen before."

Former President Joe Biden's administration also conducted multiple strikes against the Houthis as they disrupted international shipping lanes in the Red Sea.

The last U.S. airstrike in Yemen against the Houthis occurred on Jan. 8, while Biden was still in office, when a precision strike targeted two underground ammunition bunkers. There had been no other airstrikes since then partly because the Houthis stopped attacking ships during the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.

Trump slammed his predecessor, writing, "Joe Biden's response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going."

Since the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the Houthis have launched more than 100 attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, causing disruptions to global trade through one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

The Houthi rebels had initially framed their attacks as a way to pressure Israel to stop the war that was launched following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack. But as shippers began to avoid the regions of the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, the rebel strikes still continued.