U.S. airstrikes kill 12 in Yemen’s capital, Houthi rebels say

DUBAI — U.S. airstrikes targeting Yemen’s capital killed 12 people and wounded 30 others, the Houthi rebels said early Monday.

The deaths mark the latest in the United States’ intensified campaign of strikes targeting the rebels. The U.S. military’s Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Houthis described the strike as hitting the Farwa neighborhood market in Sanaa’s Shuub district. That area has been targeted before by U.S. forces.

Video aired by the Houthis’ Al Masirah satellite news channel showed damage to vehicles and buildings in the area, with screaming onlookers holding what appeared to be a dead child. Others wailed on stretchers heading into a hospital.

Strikes overnight into Monday also hit other areas of the country.

The attacks come after U.S. airstrikes hit the Ras Isa fuel port in Yemen last week, killing at least 74 people and wounding 171 others.

The assaults follow the resumption of negotiations in Rome between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, which Washington has linked to its attacks in Yemen.

The U.S. is targeting the Iran-backed Houthis because of the group’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route, and vessels the rebels say are connected to Israel. The Houthis are the last militant group in Iran’s “axis of resistance” that is capable of regularly attacking Israel.

The new U.S. operation against the Houthis under the Trump administration appears more extensive than attacks on the group were under President Biden, an AP review found. The new campaign started after the rebels threatened to begin targeting ships deemed to be tied to Israel over that country’s blocking of aid from entering the Gaza Strip amid the Israel-Hamas war.

From November 2023 until this January, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it. The Houthis also launched attacks targeting U.S. warships without success.

Assessing the toll of the month-old U.S. airstrike campaign has been difficult because the military hasn’t released information about the attacks, including what was targeted and how many people were killed. The Houthis, meanwhile, strictly control access to attacked areas and don’t publish complete information on the strikes, many of which have probably targeted military and security sites.

Gambrell writes for the Associated Press.