CAIRO — The United States and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are both vowing escalation after the U.S. launched airstrikes to deter the rebels from attacking military and commercial vessels on one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors.
Yemenis clean debris Sunday in front of their shops after U.S. airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen.
The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the overnight U.S. strikes killed at least 53 people, including five women and two children, and wounded almost 100 in the capital of Sanaa and other provinces, including Saada, the rebels’ stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia.
“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,†Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS on Sunday. He said these are not the one-off retaliation strikes the Biden administration carried out after Houthi attacks.
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President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to use “overwhelming lethal force†until the Houthis cease their attacks, and warned that Tehran would be held “fully accountable†for their actions.
A wounded child is taken for treatment at a hospital Saturday in Saada, Yemen, following airstrikes over multiple targets in the country. The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the overnight strikes killed at least 31 people, including women and children, and wounded over 100 in the capital of Sanaa and the northern province of Saada, the rebels' stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea, sinking two vessels, in what they call acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally.
The attacks stopped when a Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in January — a day before Trump took office — but last week the Houthis said they would renew attacks against Israeli vessels after Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month.
There have been no Houthi attacks reported since then.
The overnight airstrikes were one of the most extensive attacks against the Houthis since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.
Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz, on Sunday told ABC that the strikes “actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out.†He didn’t identify them or give evidence. Rubio said some Houthi facilities had been destroyed.
The Houthis’ political bureau has said the rebels will respond to the U.S. strikes and “meet escalation with escalation.â€
The first U.S. strikes against Yemen's Houthis under President Trump have killed 31 people in multiple cities across the country. The Iran-bac…
The rebels on Sunday claimed to have targeted the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group with missiles and a drone, but two U.S. officials told The Associated Press they were not tracking anything. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.
The spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement called for “utmost restraint and a cessation of all military activities,†while warning of the “grave risks†to the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation.
Rubio said that over the past 18 months the Houthis had attacked the U.S. Navy “directly†174 times and targeted commercial shipping 145 times using “guided precision anti-ship weaponry.â€
The attacks sparked the most serious combat the U.S. Navy had seen since World War II.
An aircraft launching from the USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea on Saturday before airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen.
On Sunday, the head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, denied his country was involved in the Houthis’ attacks, saying it “plays no role in setting the national or operational policies†of the militant groups it is allied with across the region, according to state-run TV.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, writing on X, urged the U.S. to halt its airstrikes and said Washington cannot dictate Iran’s foreign policy.
The U.S. and others have long accused Iran of providing military aid to the rebels. The U.S. Navy has seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weaponry it said was bound for the Houthis.
The United States, Israel and Britain previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen, but the new operation was conducted solely by the U.S. It was the first strike on the Houthis under the second Trump administration.
The USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group, which includes the carrier, three Navy destroyers and one cruiser, is in the Red Sea and was part of the mission. The USS Georgia cruise missile submarine has also been operating in the region.
How Houthi attacks crimp global trade
Why are Houthis attacking ships?
°Õ³ó±ðÌý who seized most of northern Yemen and the country's capital of Sanaa in 2014. The following year, a Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict, seeking to restore Yemen's internationally recognized government to power.
The Houthis have sporadically targeted ships in the region, but the attacks have increased since the start of the Oct. 7 . They have used  and in one case used a helicopter to board and seize an Israeli-owned ship and its crew.
They have threatened to attack any vessel they believe is either going to or coming from Israel. That's now escalated to apparently any vessel, with  flagged to countries like Norway and Liberia being attacked or .
Above: The USS Mason, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, passes a dock in Norfolk, Va., April 8, 2021. Â
Why is the Red Sea important?
The Red Sea has the Suez Canal at its northern end and the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern end, leading into the Gulf of Aden. It's a busy waterway with ships traversing the Suez Canal to bring goods between Asia and Europe and beyond.
In fact, 40% of Asia-Europe trade normally goes through the area, including a huge amount of  for import-dependent Europe. So do  and anything else brought over on container ships, which is most of the world’s manufactured products.
In all, about 30% of global container traffic and more than 1 million barrels of crude oil per day typically head through the Suez Canal, according to global freight booking platform Freightos Group.
Above: Sea Viper missiles are prepared Jan. 10, 2024, to be fired in the Red Sea from the operation room of HMS Diamond.Â
How are Houthi attacks affecting trade?
Huge shipping container companies, including Maersk, are avoiding the Red Sea and sending their ships around Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. That adds a week to two weeks to voyages and increases costs for for shipping, fuel and more.
At least 90% of the container ships that had been going through the Suez Canal are now rerouting around the tip of Africa, said Simon Heaney, senior manager of container research for Drewry, a maritime research consultancy.
The cost to ship a standard 40-foot container from China to northern Europe has jumped from $1,500 to $4,000, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany. But that is still far from the $14,000 seen during the pandemic.
The delays contributed to a 1.3% decline in world trade in December, reflecting goods stuck on ships rather than being offloaded in port.
“There will be initial shock and there will be possibly initial shortages of parts that will potentially slow up production,†Heaney said.
But “pretty soon,†the system “will adjust to the new reality of having to go around the Cape†and manufacturers have to prepare and plan for longer wait times, Heaney said.
He thinks the crisis is shaping up to last for months, but that shipping has more capacity — unlike during the pandemic — and lessons from that time mean companies have more inventory on hand. Plus, shipping costs are a tiny fraction of the value of items.
“Noticeable consequences for consumer prices in Europe are scarcely to be expected, since the share of freight costs in the value of high priced goods such as consumer electronics is a fraction of a percent,†said Julian Hinz, director of the Research Center Trade Policy at Kiel.
However, analysts at JP Morgan say that the cost increase could slow the recent decline in inflation: “While these cost increases are coming off low levels, they will reinforce the fading of recent deflationary dynamics for goods prices.â€
Above: Sea Viper missiles are fired in the Red Sea on Jan. 10, 2024, seen from the bridge of HMS Diamond.
What does it mean for oil prices?
Crude prices rose about 4% following the U.S.-led airstrikes. International benchmark Brent traded at around $78 per barrel Friday, still down from about $84 on the eve of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
“While this puts upwards pressure on global oil prices, it is unlikely to represent a serious energy supply shock for now,†Simone Tagliapietra, an energy analyst at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels, tweeted.
That could change if the Hamas-Israel and Houthi conflicts escalate and lead to trouble at the Strait of Hormuz at the southern end of the Persian Gulf, he said.
"That would have massive implications for global energy markets,†Tagliapietra said.
And White House spokesman Andrew Bates said, "We are monitoring conditions†on oil prices.
“Let me be very clear," Bates said. "It is the Houthis who have been endangering the freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways.â€
Above: A satellite image shows damage from airstrikes Jan. 12, 2024, on a radar site at Sanaa Airport in Yemen.Â
How is the world responding?
The U.S. is leading a  that includes United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain. The Houthis have no navy to impose a cordon, relying on harassing fire and only one helicopter-borne assault so far.
Friday's strikes killed at least five Houthi troops and wounded six, the rebels said, without elaborating on what was targeted. It was unclear how extensive the damage from the U.S. strikes were, though the Houthis said at least five sites, including airfields, had been attacked.
Above: An RAF Typhoon aircraft takes off Jan. 11, 2024, from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, for a mission to strike targets in Yemen. The U.S. and British militaries bombed more than a dozen sites used by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen the day before, in a massive retaliatory strike using warship- and submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets.
