The attacks come just one day after US President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes on the group’s stronghold territories in Yemen.
The Houthis announced that they launched an attack comprising of 18 ballistic and cruise missiles, along with drones, targeting the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships in the northern Red Sea on Sunday.
Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree stated that the attack was a response to more than 47 US airstrikes – ordered by US President Donald Trump – on rebel-controlled areas in Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and the province of Saada, which borders Saudi Arabia.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea in retaliation for the aggression against our country,” Saree declared.
Both Washington and the Houthis have warned of further escalation following the US airstrikes, which aimed to deter the rebels from attacking military and commercial vessels in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea – sinking two vessels – claiming their actions were in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid Israel’s war with Hamas, another Iranian-backed group
These attacks halted when an Israel-Hamas ceasefire took effect on 19 January, a day before Trump was inaugurated.
However, last week, the Houthis announced they would resume targeting Israeli vessels after Israel imposed a blockade on the enclave, cutting off the flow of humanitarian aid.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told US media on Sunday, “We’re not going to have these people controlling which ships can go through and which ones cannot.”
“And so your question is, how long will this go on? It will go on until they no longer have the capability to do that,” he added.
He emphasised that these strikes would differ from the Biden administration’s one-off attacks.
The Houthi-run health ministry reported that US airstrikes on Saturday killed at least 53 people, including five women and two children. They also say the attacks wounded over 100 more in Sanaa and Saada, with over a dozen sustaining critical injuries.
These strikes were among the most extensive against the Houthis since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.
On Saturday, Trump vowed to use “overwhelming lethal force” until the Iran-backed group ceases their attacks on the vital maritime corridor, warning Tehran that he would hold them “fully accountable” for the actions of all their regional proxies, including the Houthis.
But on Sunday, Iran denied any involvement in the Houthi attacks. General Hossein Salami, head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said on state-run media that Tehran “plays no role in setting the national or operational policies” of the militant groups it is allied with across the region.