WASHINGTON
Trump threatens Houthis to be annihilated, warns Iran to stop aid
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels "will be completely annihilated," warning Tehran against continuing aid for the group amid an ongoing U.S. military campaign against them.
Trump said reports suggest that Tehran has lessened its support for the Houthis, but said Iran is "still sending large levels of Supplies." It is unclear if the president is referring to reports from his officials, or the media.
"Iran must stop the sending of these Supplies IMMEDIATELY. Let the HOuthis fight it out themselves," he said on his proprietary social media website.
"Either way they lose, but this way they lose quickly. Tremendous damage has been inflicted upon the Houthi barbarians, and watch how it will get progressively worse — It’s not even a fair fight, and never will be. They will be completely annihilated!" he added.
Earlier Wednesday, the Houthis reported a new series of sorties by U.S. warplanes on areas in northern and western Yemen, according to local media.
Later on, the media channels of Yemen's Houthi rebels once again reported strikes by the United States on the city of Saada, the birthplace of their movement in the country's north.
"A strike by the U.S. aggression" targeted the Saada governorate, said the Iran-backed Huthis' Saba news agency and Al-Masira TV, while witnesses told AFP there were three strikes on the area.
Meanwhile, the group's military spokesman Yahya Saree announced in a televised speech that his group targeted the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea with multiple rockets and drones.
He noted that the attack was the fourth in 72 hours.
On Tuesday evening, the Houthi group mourned 10 of its military officers killed in US strikes on Yemen.
State-run Anadolu Agency said the U.S. has carried out more than 60 raids on Yemen since Saturday, killing more than 50 people and injuring dozens.
The Houthi group has been attacking Israeli-linked ships passing through the Red and Arabian seas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden with missiles and drones since late 2023, disrupting global trade for what it said was a show of solidarity with the Gaza Strip.
The group halted its attacks when a ceasefire was declared in January between Israel and the Palestinian group, Hamas, but it threatened to resume the attacks when Israel blocked all humanitarian aid into Gaza on March 2.