U.S. forces launched new strikes on the Ras Isa port in northwest Yemen on April 17, damaging a key artery believed to be supplying fuel sustaining Yemen’s Houthis.
“Today, U.S. forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorize the entire region for over 10 years,” the U.S. Central Command announced in a Thursday press statement.
Originally formed in opposition to Yemen’s U.N.-recognized government, the Houthis seized control over Yemen’s capital city of Sana'a in September 2014. The predominantly Zaidi Shiite faction has fought in an ongoing war with the Yemeni government, now located in Aden.
Yemen’s internal conflict has died down in recent years, and the Houthis have increasingly turned their attention outward. In the fall of 2023, the Houthis began launching missiles and attack drones at ships in the Red Sea and Israel, claiming solidarity with the Palestinian people amid the ongoing Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
On March 4, Secretary of State Marco Rubio relisted the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization, noting their pattern of attacks and the threat they may pose to American civilians and personnel throughout the Middle East.
Despite last month’s terrorism designation, Central Command assessed that ships have continued to supply fuel through the Ras Isa port, in Yemen’s Houthi-controlled northwest, providing them a key source of financing for their continued operations.
Since capturing Sana'a, the Houthis have declared a governing Supreme Political Council and asserted control over an area of Yemen representing nearly 80 percent of the country’s population of 32 million.
As of Friday, the Health Ministry in Houthi-controlled Sana'a assessed that at least 74 people were killed and another 171 were injured in the U.S. strikes. The casualty assessment is preliminary and cannot be independently verified at this time.
“The objective of these strikes was to degrade the economic source of power of the Houthis, who continue to exploit and bring great pain upon their fellow countrymen. This strike was not intended to harm the people of Yemen, who rightly want to throw off the yoke of Houthi subjugation and live peacefully,” the Central Command press statement reads.
In 2015, under President Barack Obama, the United States began providing arms, refueling, and intelligence support for a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states backing the Aden government in its civil war with Houthi-controlled Sana'a.
By January 2024, as the Houthi attacks along the Red Sea shipping lanes mounted, the Biden administration began authorizing direct U.S. strikes throughout Yemen. These U.S. air and missile attacks continued for a year before Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, during which the Houthi attacks stopped.
On March 15, as the Gaza cease-fire neared collapse and as the Houthis threatened to resume their attacks, President Donald Trump ordered U.S. forces to renew combat operations against the Houthis.
The Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group arrived in the CENTCOM area of operations this week and joined the Truman Carrier Strike Group in the ongoing U.S. bombing campaign. The Vinson Carrier Strike Group is now the fifth U.S. aircraft carrier group to take part in operations against Houthi targets since January 2024.
