U.S. launches airstrikes on Yemen's Hodeidah amid tensions with Houthis

The U.S. has launched a wave of airstrikes on Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV said on Monday morning, hours after the group launched a retaliatory attack against a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Red Sea.

The overnight airstrikes targeted the Zabid District in Hodeidah, according to the group. It said earlier the strikes also hit Galaxy Leader, a vessel the group seized in November 2023 and took to the coastal city.

The attack came against the backdrop of fresh tit-for-tat attacks between the Houthis and the United States. On Sunday, the Houthis said they launched "a drone and 18 ballistic and cruise missiles" on the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and its warships in response to extensive U.S. airstrikes across northern Yemen the day before.

Saturday's airstrikes, which the Houthi-run health department said killed at least 53 people, are the biggest U.S. military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January.

A U.S. official told Reuters U.S. warplanes shot down 11 Houthi drones on Sunday, none of which came close to the Truman. U.S. forces also tracked a missile that splashed down off the coast of Yemen and was not deemed a threat, the official said.

The Houthis, who have taken control of most of Yemen over the past decade, said last week they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea if Israel did not lift a block on aid entering Gaza. They had launched scores of attacks on ships after Israel's war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza's Palestinians.

The U.S. has vowed to keep attacking the Houthis until they end attacks on shipping. "The minute the Houthis say we'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your drones. This campaign will end, but until then it will be unrelenting," U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures.

"This is about stopping the shooting at assets ... in that critical waterway, to reopen freedom of navigation, which is a core national interest of the United States, and Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long," he said. "They better back off."

The Houthis on Sunday framed the American attacks as support for Israel and warned that the U.S. would "drag the situation to a more severe and painful level."

They said they would "continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy" in its area of operations, including the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, until the entry of aid into Gaza is permitted.

(With input from agencies)

(Cover: An image grab from a handout video provided by Houthis' official Al-Masirah TV, December 26, 2024. /VCG)