AFP<\/em> photographer in the rebel-held capital Sanaa heard explosions and saw plumes of smoke rising.<\/p>\nAttacks on Sanaa, as well as on areas in Saada, Al-Bayda and Radaa, killed at least 31 people and wounded 101, \u201cmost of whom were children and women\u201d, health ministry spokesperson Anis Al-Asbahi said.<\/p>\n
Footage on Houthi media showed children and a woman among those being treated in a hospital emergency room, including a dazed girl with blackened legs wrapped in bandages.<\/p>\n
Trump, in a post on social media, vowed to \u201cuse overwhelming lethal force\u201d to end the Houthi attacks, which the rebels say are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump looks on as military strikes are launched against Yemen\u2019s Houthis over the group\u2019s attacks against Red Sea shipping, at an unspecified location in this handout image released on March 15, 2025. \u2014 White House\/Handout via Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\u201cTo all Houthi terrorists, your time is up, and your attacks must stop, starting today. If they don\u2019t, hell will rain down upon you like nothing you have ever seen before!\u201d Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.<\/p>\n
Trump also warned Iran that it needed to immediately halt support for the group. He said if Iran threatened the United States, \u201cAmerica will hold you fully accountable and, we won\u2019t be nice about it!\u201d<\/p>\n
The unfolding strikes \u2014 which one US official told Reuters<\/em> might continue for weeks \u2014 represent the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office in January. It came as the US ramps up sanctions pressure on Tehran while trying to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme.<\/p>\nThe Houthis\u2019 political bureau described the attacks as a \u201cwar crime\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Yemeni armed forces are fully prepared to respond to escalation with escalation,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Residents in Sanaa said the strikes hit a building in a Houthi stronghold.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe explosions were violent and shook the neighborhood like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children,\u201d one of the residents, who gave his name as Abdullah Yahia, told Reuters<\/em>.<\/p>\nAnother strike on a power station in the town of Dahyan in Saada led to a power cut, Al-Masirah TV<\/em> reported earlier today. Dahyan is where Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the enigmatic leader of the Houthis, often meets his visitors.<\/p>\nThe Houthis, an armed movement that took control of most of Yemen over the past decade, have launched scores of attacks on ships off its coast since November 2023, disrupting global commerce and setting the US military on a costly campaign to intercept missiles and drones that have burned through stocks of US air defences.<\/p>\n\n