Trump: Houthi rebels have been 'decimated' by 'relentless strikes'
President Trump on Monday declared the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been decimated by strikes the United States launched this month, vowing to continue attacks until they are no longer a threat.
“The Iran-backed Houthi Terrorists have been decimated by the relentless strikes over the past two weeks. Many of their Fighters and Leaders are no longer with us. We hit them every day and night — Harder and harder,” Trump said on Truth Social.
The president added, “Their capabilities that threaten Shipping and the Region are rapidly being destroyed. Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation. The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at U.S. ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran.”
At least three people were killed in the latest strikes that lasted into Monday morning. One of the strikes targeted a pickup truck in Hajjah, which was the first known example of U.S. strikes hitting a vehicle in Yemen.
The U.S. attacks on the Houthis began at the start of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and have continued sporadically. The strikes have escalated under the Trump administration.
The airstrikes that began on March 15 were discussed in a group chat among Trump’s national security team on Signal, which inadvertently included The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg. Goldberg released the contents of the chat last week.
The White House has said the Signal chat did not include classified information, and pointed to the success of that operation in defending the officials on the chat, on which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared a specific timeline of the strikes and what weapons would be used.
Hegseth had pledged an “unrelenting” campaign until the Houthis stop their attacks on various vessels in the Red Sea earlier this month, following a declaration from the rebel group to resume attacks on Israeli vessels sailing off Yemen. Israeli ships have been targeted in response to its blockade of aid to the war-torn Gaza Strip.