National security adviser Michael Waltz said on March 16 that the Trump administration’s strikes on the Houthi terrorist group in Yemen resulted in significant blows to its leadership.
In an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” Waltz confirmed the strikes and described the Houthis, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, as “essentially Al Qaeda with sophisticated Iranian-backed air defenses and anti-ship cruise missiles and drones.”
“We hit the Houthi leadership, killing several of their key leaders last night, their infrastructure, the missiles,” he said.
On March 15, President Donald Trump ordered several airstrikes on Houthi-held areas in Yemen, vowing to use “overwhelming lethal force” until the Iran-backed terrorists end their attacks on a critical sea lane.
The Houthis said the strikes led to at least 31 deaths, but those numbers could not be independently verified, and the United States has not yet released death toll estimates.
While speaking with ABC’s “This Week” on March 16, Waltz emphasized the threat to global shipping, which has forced many vessels to reroute around the southern tip of Africa.
“It is Iran that has repeatedly funded, resourced, trained and helped the Houthis target not only U.S. warships, but global commerce, and has helped the Houthis shut down two of the world’s most strategic sea lanes,” Waltz said. “Seventy percent of global shipping is now diverting around Southern Africa, adding to the cost of goods, disrupting global economies, adding to or shutting off supplies to the United States.”
Trump has warned Iran to stop supporting the terrorist organization, vowing to hold the nation “fully accountable” for the Houthis’ actions.
Iran is denying any direct involvement. Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said his nation “plays no role in setting the national or operational policies” of allied militant groups throughout the region, according to state-run media.
Speaking with CBS’s “Face the Nation” on March 16, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Houthis have struck or attacked the U.S. Navy more than 300 times in the past 18 months.
“We basically have a band of pirates with guided precision anti-ship weaponry exacting a toll system in one of the most important shipping lanes in the world. That’s just not sustainable,” he said.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the airstrikes are “about freedom of navigation and restoring deterrence.”
“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,” he told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Yemen’s Houthis targeted U.S. aircraft carrier the USS Harry S. Truman and its warships with ballistic missiles and drones in response to alleged U.S. attacks on Yemen, the group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, said in a televised statement on March 16.
He said the group will continue attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea if Israel does not lift a block on aid entering Gaza.
