US Says Strikes Killed Houthi Leaders

Iran denies assisting the militants in Yemen
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 16, 2025 10:30 AM CDT
After Strikes, Iran Denies Helping Houthis
Yemenis clean debris in front of their shops on Sunday after US airstrikes in Sanaa.   (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

Iran on Sunday again denied aiding Yemen's Houthi rebels after the US launched a wave of airstrikes against them and President Trump warned that Tehran would be held "fully accountable" for their actions. The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the weekend strikes killed at least 31 people, including women and children, and wounded over 100. The rebels said one strike hit two homes in northern Saada province, killing four children and a woman. The rebel-run Al-Masirah TV showed images of what it said were the bodies, the AP reports. Trump's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, on Sunday told ABC that the strikes "actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out."

The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international commercial shipping in the Red Sea and launched missiles and drones at Israel in what the rebels have called acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally, since October 2023. The Houthi attacks had stopped when a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in Gaza in January, but the rebels last week said they would renew them against Israeli vessels sailing off Yemen after Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month. There have been no Houthi attacks reported since then, per the AP.

The US and others have long accused Iran of providing military aid to the Houthis. Gen. Hossein Salami, head of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, denied his country was involved in the Houthis' attacks, saying his nation "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. Appearing Sunday on ABC's This Week, Waltz did not rule out using military force against Iran, per Politico. "All actions are always on the table with the president," he said. "But Iran needs to hear him loud and clear."

(More Houthis stories.)

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