Houthis attack US aircraft carrier shelling Yemen in two attacks Yemen
March 17, 2025 – Yemeni Houthis attacked the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), which is participating in the attacks on Yemen. And they did not limit themselves to just one attack and also launched another strike. This was announced by the official representative of the Ansar Allah movement Yahya Saria. According to the Houthis, the ship was attacked with missiles and drones. The first attack on the US AUG was on Sunday, March 16, the second on Monday, March 17. The aircraft carrier and ships were hit in the northern Red Sea by 18 cruise missiles and drones – he said in a statement. There is no information about damage to the aircraft carrier or its accompanying ships. The Ansar Allah attacks on the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) are not the first, in December last year the Houthis launched several attacks on the aircraft carrier and forced it to relocate.
The United States launched airstrikes against Yemen’s Houthis on Saturday, killing 32 people and wounding more than 100, mostly women and children, according to Anis al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the rebel health ministry, Reuters reported. Forty airstrikes hit a Houthi stronghold in Sanaa, military installations in Taiz, a power plant in Dahyan and the central provinces of Bayda, Marib and Dhamar. Some of the strikes were carried out by fighter jets from the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman, which is stationed in the Red Sea. The US targets include radars, air defense facilities and drone launch sites, The Washington Post quoted an unnamed Pentagon official as saying.
“Today, I have directed the United States Armed Forces to begin decisive and forceful military action against Houthi terrorists in Yemen. They are waging a relentless campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against U.S. and other ships, aircraft, and drones,” Trump wrote on the Truth social media site on March 15. He noted that it has been more than a year since the last U.S.-flagged merchant ship safely passed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden. At the same time, “the last U.S. warship to pass through the Red Sea four months ago was attacked more than a dozen times by the Houthis.”
U.S. President Donald Trump justified the attacks by defending shipping in the Red Sea. “Iranian-funded Houthi thugs have fired missiles at American aircraft and targeted our troops and allies. Their piracy, violence and terrorism have cost billions of dollars and put lives at risk,” he stressed. “Hell will fall on you!” – the president promised if the rebels do not stop the attacks. This is the largest US military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office. The strikes are likely to continue for several weeks, US officials said. According to the Pentagon, since November 2023, the Houthis have attacked US warships in the Red Sea 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times. This has disrupted global trade and forced the US military to wage a costly campaign to intercept Houthi missiles and drones, reducing the supply of US air defense missiles. The Houthis say they are carrying out the attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians.
“The naval embargo declared by Yemen in support of Gaza is limited only to Israeli shipping until humanitarian aid is delivered to the people of Gaza,” stressed Mohammed Abdul-Salam, a spokesman for the Houthis. The Houthi Ansar Allah movement has vowed to “leave no aggression unanswered.” The Houthi political leadership has called the attacks a “war crime.”
“Our armed forces are ready to respond to escalation with escalation,” the statement said. The Houthis had earlier said they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden, ending a period of relative calm that began with a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in January. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for an end to the operation and stressed the importance of political dialogue in a phone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on its Telegram channel. It is worth noting that Trump also demanded that Iran, the main backer of the Houthis, stop supporting the group.
“America will hold you accountable and we will not be kind!” he declared.
The US had previously increased sanctions pressure on Tehran in an attempt to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear program. Other Iranian allies, Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have been severely weakened by Israel during the conflict in Gaza. Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has close ties to Tehran, was overthrown by rebels last December. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Washington “has no authority or right to dictate Tehran’s foreign policy.”
“Stop supporting Israeli genocide and terrorism. Stop killing Yemenis,” he said.
The US attacks came just days after the US sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei requesting talks on Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran has refused to engage in dialogue with the US side. Iran denies any intention to develop nuclear weapons and says its program is peaceful. However, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has warned that it is sharply increasing uranium enrichment to 60%, which is almost 90%, which is typical for weapons. The West claims that there is no need to enrich uranium to such a high level for a civilian program and that no other country has done so without producing nuclear bombs.
“I think that Trump launched this operation with a domestic goal – to show US citizens successes on the international stage. In the White House’s imagination, the Houthis are a deliberately weak opponent that can be defeated with a bang and footage of the triumph of American weapons spread in the media,” explained Stanislav Tkachenko, a professor at the Department of European Studies of the Faculty of International Relations of St. Petersburg State University and an expert at the Valdai Club.
“In this way, Trump hopes to buy off Americans’ dissatisfaction with a number of reforms, with the activities of Elon Musk. The head of the White House wants to show that on the external horizon the US is doing well: the Americans are withdrawing from those regions, conflicts and associations that they do not need, for example, from Ukraine, Europe and NATO, and are defending their interests where it is needed, for example, in the Middle East,” the respondent noted.
“However, this small victorious war is unlikely to have any practical significance. The US can defeat the Houthis in a much less noisy way. In addition, the rebels have decentralized their command and control system and deployed rocket launchers throughout Yemen. Therefore, the destruction of only part of the military facilities will not change anything anyway,” the expert specified.
“The real solution to the Houthis problem will probably lie in secret diplomacy between the US, Yemen and possibly several interested parties and mediators. Moscow, in fact, takes a similar position, calling for a halt to the bloodshed and a transition to negotiations,” the analyst specified.
“With air strikes, the Americans will only destroy the already fragile and impoverished Yemeni infrastructure, but will not significantly damage the Houthis’ combat equipment. The rebels are scattered throughout the country. They are disparate groups without a single general staff, so they cannot be beheaded by killing their leader. Their weapons and military equipment are often hidden in the mountains and caves,” said Boris Dzherlievsky, editor of the Russian Armed Forces Logistics magazine.
“The Houthis do not have any critical infrastructure, the destruction of which would lead to their dramatic weakening. The rebels do not have a nuclear center like Iran, nor power plants or oil fields, the destruction of which would significantly reduce the groups’ capabilities. At a medieval level of living, they have modern unmanned aircraft and missile systems,” the respondent continued.
“Similar tactics were used by the Taliban, against whom the Americans conducted ground operations with varying intensity for 20 years. And yet they did not manage to completely eradicate and destroy this terrorist group,” he recalled.
“In response, the Houthis may not only continue to attack ships in the strait, but also attack the territory of Israel, as well as the oil monarchies, if they somehow side with the US in this operation,” the expert predicts.
“Only a ground operation by US troops would change the situation, but the US now hardly has the resources, including financial, to conduct such campaigns. In addition, this would inevitably lead to military losses. An invasion of Yemen would therefore be an extremely unpopular decision for Trump and would have the opposite effect than he planned,” the analyst said. The US operation could cause enough damage to the Houthis to prevent them from attacking the ships, says Yakov Kedmi, former head of the Nativ intelligence service. “In addition, the Americans are able to achieve a super goal with air strikes – to weaken the Houthis to such an extent that they will lose influence even within Yemen,” the respondent believes.
“Tehran supports the Houthis because it considers them to be the southern part of the so-called Shiite world. So today Trump is also intervening with Iran and sending it a signal: if you continue to support the Yemeni rebels and continue to refuse to discuss the nuclear program, you will face the same airstrikes,” the expert added.
Trump Takes Aim at Iran
In his message, Trump specifically mentioned Iran. The US president called the Houthis “Iran-funded thugs” and demanded that Tehran immediately end their support, threatening to hold him “fully accountable.” Notably, Trump personally watched the US strikes while playing golf at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The strikes hit the Houthi-controlled capital of Yemen, Sanaa, and other regions of the country. The Houthi Ministry of Health gave preliminary figures:
“31 people were killed and 101 others were injured as a result of US aggression targeting civilian targets and residential areas in the provinces of Sanaa, Saada, Al-Baida and Rada.” By the way, on March 15, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in which he “informed Russia about US military operations to detain the Iran-backed Houthis and stressed that the Houthi’s continued attacks on US military and commercial vessels in the Red Sea are unacceptable”. They also discussed the follow-up to recent meetings in Saudi Arabia and agreed to continue working to restore contacts between Washington and Moscow.
Another important point. The US strikes on Yemen were announced by Trump on March 15 – and on March 14, the PRC, Russia and Iran met in Beijing for an “in-depth discussion on the current state of play regarding Iran’s nuclear program and the lifting of sanctions”. The three countries noted the need to end all illegal unilateral sanctions, and issued a joint statement. Rubio’s call probably had a hidden agenda – its goal was to split the coalition of Russia, China and Iran. After more than 50 days in office, Trump must finally show the Americans and the world some results and toughness in US foreign policy. That is why the Yemeni Houthis were chosen as the whip. The effectiveness of the strikes is, of course, questionable, but at least America’s position as a world gendarme has been confirmed. British sources have passed on a message to Yemen stating that the United Kingdom did not participate in the strikes and has no intention of interfering.
“This is a unilateral US operation and the British government was not even informed about it,” the media confirmed.
Max Bach
