SANA’A (Dispatches) – The United States launched a large-scale bombing campaign against Yemen on Saturday, killing and wounding dozens. The U.S. president warned that “hell will rain down upon” the country if it did not stop operations in solidarity with the Palestinians against Israeli ships in the Red Sea.
At least 31 people were killed and 101 others wounded in the strikes, mostly women and children, Anis al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Yemeni health ministry, said on Sunday.
Four children and a woman were killed in a strike that hit two houses in northern Sa’ada province, Yemeni media reported. Footage shared on local media showed children and a woman among those being treated in a hospital emergency room.
Some reports said Saudi Arabia had provided the U.S. with logistical support for the strikes on Yemen, but Riyadh denied it.
The aggression marks the biggest U.S. military operation in West Asia since Donald Trump took office. It comes days after Trump added Yemen’s Ansarallah resistance movement back to the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).
A U.S. official told Reuters that the attacks on Yemen might continue for weeks.
Yemeni forces have repeatedly launched drone and missile operations, targeting Israeli-linked vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since 2023. The campaign has severely impacted Israeli ports.
Ansarullah’s political bureau described the attacks as a “war crime”.
“Our Yemeni armed forces are fully prepared to respond to escalation with escalation,” it said in a statement.
Airstrikes were reported in the capital, Sana’a, as well as in Al-Bayda and Rada’a. The U.S. military also targeted the southwestern city of Taiz and a power station in the town of Dahyan in Sa’ada, leading to a power outage, according to local media and witness reports.
Late Saturday, U.S. and British warplanes launched a new round of airstrikes on a residential neighborhood in the Shuaab district of the Yemeni capital, killing at least nine civilians and injuring several more.
“The explosions were violent and shook the neighborhood
like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children,” a resident of the area told Reuters.
Earlier this week, Yemen’s armed forces announced the reinstatement of a ban on all Israeli vessels passing through designated operational areas in the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait, and Gulf of Aden, following the expiration of the deadline set by Ansarallah leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi for Israel to permit aid into Gaza.
“Any Israeli ship attempting to violate this ban will be targeted in the declared area of operations. This ban will continue until the crossings to the Gaza Strip are reopened and aid and food and medicine supplies are allowed to enter,” a military statement stressed.
Yemen’s efforts to stop the U.S.-Israeli genocide in Gaza prompted an illegal war initiated by Washington and London in January 2024, resulting in hundreds of airstrikes in the Arab world’s poorest nation.
Despite the Western onslaught, Yemeni forcers were undeterred in their military campaign and forced several U.S. aircraft carriers and European warships out of the Red Sea. The country has also downed 15 U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones.
Yemen’s Supreme Political Council pledging that the nation will punish the criminal regime in a “painful” manner.
It said targeting civilians proves the U.S. failure in confrontation, adding that the aggression will not deter Yemenis from supporting Gaza but will instead escalate tensions.
“The punishment of the aggressors against Yemen will be carried out professionally and painfully, by the will of God,” it warned.
The council said the airstrikes on Yemen mark a return to the militarization of the Red Sea, posing a real threat to international navigation in the region.
The U.S., along with the Zionist entity, will fail and retreat in disgrace and defeat, just as they did during their genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, it noted.
The council called on the international community to fulfill its responsibilities in the face of the “reckless U.S.-Israeli aggression,” which will have consequences for all.
“Yemen remains committed to supporting and assisting Palestine and that naval operations will continue until the blockade on Gaza is lifted and humanitarian aid is allowed in.”
Ansarullah spokesman Muhammad Abdul Salam said, “The U.S. airstrikes on Yemen are a blatant aggression against an independent state and an encouragement for the Israeli enemy entity to continue its unjust siege on Gaza.”