US military strikes on Yemen’s Ras Isa fuel port have killed at least 80 people including civilians and rescue workers, according to the Houthi-run health ministry, in the deadliest attack since Washington launched its campaign against the Iran-backed militants. The rebels’ Al-Masirah TV, citing local officials, said the toll from the strike had “risen to 80 dead and 150 wounded”. Some analysts see the scale of the attack and the nature of the target – a major economic site in the country – as aimed at sending a message to Tehran amid mounting pressure on Iran from the Trump administration over its nuclear programme. While Donald Trump has threatened to “annihilate” Yemen’s Houthis, the group remains intact despite the ongoing US air campaign, amid deep scepticism from experts over whether Trump’s military policy is achievable. In the immediate aftermath of the US strikes, a Houthi official vowed to hit back, announcing that the group had targeted two US aircraft carriers and a military site near Israel’s main airport. “The American military buildup and continued aggression against our country will only lead to more counterattack and attack operations, clashes and confrontations,” the Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree told a rebel-organised protest in the capital, Sana’a. The US strikes hit several areas but were mostly concentrated around the port facility, where the dead included truck drivers and emergency responders. Video footage from the port, posted by the Houthi-affiliated al-Masirah TV on social media in the early hours of Friday, showed massive explosions and bodies strewn across the site. The TV station later screened interviews with survivors lying on stretchers, including one man with burns on his arms. “We ran away. The strikes came one after the other, then everything was on fire,” a man who said he worked at the port told al-Masirah. Ras Isa terminal has a storage capacity of 3m barrels and was the first port built for oil exports from Yemen, about 40 years ago. A Nasa satellite system that monitors fires picked up an intense blaze early on Friday morning at the site just off Kamaran Island. In a statement posted on social media, US Central Command said: “US 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 terrorise the entire region for over 10 years. “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 US has vowed to keep attacking Yemen’s Houthis, in its biggest military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office in January, unless the Houthis cease attacks on Red Sea shipping. Asked for comment on the Houthis’ casualty figure and its own estimate, US Central Command said it had none beyond the initial announcement of the attacks. Iran called the US strikes “barbaric”, while the Palestinian militants Hamas denounced them as “blatant aggression”. The latest US campaign was triggered by Houthi threats to resume attacks on international shipping in protest at Israel’s blocking of aid to the Gaza Strip. The Houthis have launched dozens of drone and missile attacks on vessels in the Red Sea since November 2023, saying they were targeting ships linked to Israel in protest over the war in Gaza. Early on Friday, hours after the US attack, Israel’s military said it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen. Recent expert analysis for the Atlantic Council was dubious about the practicality of US war aims in Yemen. “The United States’ ability to track [Abdel Malik al-Houthi, the Houthis’ leader] is likely hindered by limited intelligence on the ground in Yemen. This reality was echoed early last year when the US had difficulty assessing the success of its operations and the group’s full arsenal due to a lack of intelligence,” it said. “Without a reliable presence or informant network, targeting such a well-hidden leader will prove challenging.” The Trump administration’s clumsy handling of the enlarged US campaign against the Houthis was already mired in controversy before Friday’s large death toll, after details of the initial attack plan were discussed by senior Trump officials on an unsecured chat service to which a journalist had been invited to join.
Author: Peter Beaumont and agencies