The United States will maintain “unrelenting” strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels until they say “we are done shooting at ships and assets,” defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday. His remarks came after President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes on Houthi targets in Sanaa on Saturday.
“This campaign is 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,” Hegseth said in an interview on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures.
“But until then, it will be unrelenting,” he added.
He further continued that “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, and Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long,” adding, “They better back off.”
Earlier on Saturday, Trump announced on Truth Social: “Today, I have ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen. They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones. To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!”
White House national security advisor Mike Waltz further confirmed that the US carried out successful strikes targeting Houthi leadership and infrastructure.
“We hit the Houthi leadership, killing several of their key leaders last night — their infrastructure, the missiles. We just hit them with overwhelming force and put Iran on notice that enough is enough,” Mike Waltz told Fox News on Sunday.
Speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated: “Those are military decisions to be made, but I’ve heard no talk of ground raids.”
“I don’t think there’s a necessity for it right now,” he added.
At least 31 people were killed in US airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, according to news agency Reuters.
These strikes mark the first US military action against the Houthis since the start of Trump’s administration in January, following the rebels’ attacks on Israel and Red Sea vessels amid the Gaza conflict.