US airstrikes are reportedly hitting the Yemeni capital city of Sanaa today, with President Trump promising “overwhelming lethal force” against the Houthi movement in northern Yemen unless they stop all attacks on international shipping.

Early casualty figures indicate a lot of civilians have been killed or wounded. The most recent figures from al-Mayadeen were at least 24 killed and many more wounded.  10 civilians were killed in Sanaa alone.

Trump said that he had decided to launch “decisive and powerful military action” against the “Houthi terrorists,” accusing them of piracy against Americans. He also condemned former President Joe Biden for being “pathetically weak” and said no American commercial ship had gone through the Suez Canal in over a year.

Like many of the important US declarations of war these days, President Trump’s announcement  came via a post on his social media application Truth Social, and was punctuated with all caps screeds railing about hell raining down on Yemen “like nothing you have ever seen before!”

Trump also notably took time out from announcing attacks on the Houthis to threaten Iran in the post, insisting that if Iran continues to support the Houthis and the Houthis do anything to threaten Trump “who has received one of the largest mandates in Presidential History” he would hold Iran responsible and “won’t be nice about it.”

The US has been backing military action against the Houthis in Yemen for many years now, dating back to the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen in 2015. That invasion was predicated on the idea of reinstalling President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi, who was a close ally of the Saudis. Hadi had resigned a few months before the invasion.

The Saudi invasion resulted in a protracted war, leaving Saudis and their allies in control of much of historical Southern Yemen, but the Houthis retained the north, including Sanaa. The US for years backed the on-again, off-again offensives against central Yemen, trying to push toward Sanaa, but that ultimately never happened.

The Houthis became a bigger deal internationally after the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip. The Houthis made of policy of attacking Israeli-linked vessels passing by their area, and picked that up to include many commercial vessels, leading major shipping companies to avoid the area. Under President Biden, the US, Israel and UK launched airstrikes on the Houthis multiple times, though it did not result in any halt of strikes on ships.

The Houthis did, however, briefly stop attacks when the Israel-Gaza ceasefire was announced, though they have resumed attacks on Israelis in recent weeks because Israel is blocking humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip.

The Houthis reportedly sank two boats in 2024, and President Trump claims they cost the US economy “billions of dollars.” It’s difficult to quantify the actual cost, though the Suez Canal was a popular shipping route and many are avoiding it now in favor of safer options.

Multiple strikes hit Sanaa itself, many of the US airstrikes are reportedly targeting the Houthis’ defensive capabilities, including missile systems and air defenses. Details are still coming in regarding the extent of the damage.

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