WASHINGTON ( WNAM MONITORING): The US will continue to hit Houthi group in Yemen until they end they end attacks on shipping, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday.
“This isn’t a one-night thing. This will continue until you say ‘We’re done shooting at ships. We’re done shooting at assets,'” Hegseth told Fox News.
His remarks came a day after the US launched airstrikes on Houthis, killing at least 31 people, as President Donald Trump warned that “hell will rain down” if the group continues attacks on Red Sea shipping.
“We don’t want a long, limited war in the Middle East. We don’t care what happens in the Yemeni civil war.
“This is about stopping the shooting at assets in that critical waterway to reopen freedom of navigation, which is a core national interest of the United States,” Hegseth said.
The Pentagon chief said Iran has been enabling the Houthis “for far too long.”
“They better back off,” he warned.
Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesperson, said the group targeted a US aircraft carrier with ballistic missiles and drones, in retaliation for the American airstrikes.
Saree said Houthi forces conducted a “qualitative military operation” targeting the USS Harry S. Truman and its accompanying warships in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and winged missiles and a drone.
He vowed the group would not hesitate to strike all US naval assets in the Red and Arabian seas as retribution.
Iran, for its part, said the Houthis make their strategic decisions “independently.”
“Yemen is an independent nation with its own policies,” the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Sunday.“The Yemeni people have their national policy. The Houthis as representatives of the Yemeni people make their own strategic and operational decisions.”
The Houthis have been attacking Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea with missiles and drones since late 2023, disrupting global trade, in solidarity with the Gaza Strip.
The group halted its attacks when a ceasefire was declared in January between Israel and Hamas. But it threatened to resume the attacks when Israel blocked all aid into Gaza on March 2.
