A bombing of the United States launched Thursday night against one of the main oil ports of Yemen, located in territory under the control of the Hutí movement, has caused at least 58 dead and at least 126 injured, as reported on Friday the television channel to Masirah, related to the rebels, citing the local health office. If this number of deaths are confirmed, the attack on the port facilities of Ras Isa would be one of the most lethal from the
The United States Army announced the attack on Thursday in a statement in which it affirmed that the destruction of the port of Ras Isa, in the Hodeida Governorate, in the Red Sea, aimed to cut a fuel source for the hutis and deprive them of the income that their import reports and then the group uses to finance their military operations. Washington, however, has not yet ruled on the civil victims of the attack. The hutis, meanwhile, accuse the United States of incurring a “war crime.” “This completely unjustified aggression represents a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and independence of Yemen and a direct attack on the entire Yemeni people,” they say in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Information of the Government of the internationally recognized Yemen, Muamar al Eryani, held the rebels for the attack for “having transformed this vital installation of an economic exit at the service of the Yemenis in a center of smuggling of Iranian weapons and fuel, and in a source of financing of their terrorist activities” for ten years, Efe reported.
Those ordered by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, on the areas controlled by the Houthi rebels of Yemen hit the civilian population hard. Without counting the latter, they have caused 63 dead in a single month, the triple that the attacks that the previous president, Joe Biden, according to an still provisional figures of the independent data collection platform Yemen Data Project (YDP) advanced to El País.
Trump ordered to launch a campaign against the hutis on March 15 after the Yemeni group threatened to resume, one of the main arteries for world trade, in response to the beginning of the month. The operation ordered by the US President thus took the relay of, throughout the previous year.
The rhythm and scope of current attacks, however, is much higher. In the year that the Biden government campaign lasted, 308 American and British bombings (ally in this operation) were held, while during the first month of the current campaign 175 have already been registered, according to YDP, not including the last registered this Thursday. The current operation, in addition, has hit at least 11 provinces of the country, especially to the native region of Los Hutíes in Saada, located in the northwest.
The rate of civil victims (dead and wounded) caused by the current offensive is more than four times higher than that registered with Biden and has also exceeded the average rate that left seven years of fierce air war led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen to the 2022 truce, according to YDP. Thus, with the Democratic president, 85 victims (21 killed) were recorded in 308 attacks; With the Republican, the total is 213 (63 dead) in 175 operations. Always without counting this week’s bombardment.
In addition, during the first three weeks of the operation launched by Trump, the YDP count shows that 40% of American operations reached civil objectives, including medical centers, schools, an electric station and a wedding hall. And around a quarter of the bombings against civil objectives hit residential areas (in the biden mandate only occurred once). The deadliest attack for civilians recorded so far by YDP occurred on April 8, when 13 people died, including four children, in a bombing in a residential complex of Hodeida.
The casualties that US attacks are inflicting in Huti ranks are, instead, difficult to clarify. The researcher Mohammed Albasha, of the Risk Consultant Basha Report, has been able to account for more than a hundred hutis casualties of diverse military rank since the beginning of the bombing, but has not been able to verify them all and, although the Yemenis rebels and affiliated news agencies have announced the death of numerous combatants, they do not usually reveal details.
“A high -ranking objective is usually a major general or other key command. Until now, only the death of some brigade generals and colonels have been confirmed, along with dozens of medium level officers with experience and critical knowledge,” says Albasha. “It is unlikely that the hutis publicly recognize the death of a high -ranking leader now: in 2015 they waited for a whole year before confirming the death of the head of security,” he explains.
The hutis began to attack commercial ships in the Red Sea – where it is estimated that it was navigating between 12% and 15% of the global maritime trade and that it is essential for the transfer of fossil fuels – after Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza in October 2023. The Yemení group has reiterated that it will cease its actions when the war ends in the strip, something that has already fulfilled the last one. Fire, between January and March. Following the hutis attacks, maritime traffic through this area has fallen around half.
The bombing campaign started in March also begins to modify the internal scenario. Armed factions allied with the government recognized by the international community are considered to resume land military operations against the rebel group. His intention is to take advantage of the setbacks that is inflicting the Hutis to save Washington’s air attacks.
Albasha indicates that Yemeni features contrary to the hutis have not yet performed any significant mobilization of troops. But he points out that US attacks in the regions of Hodeida, Saada, Marib and Jauf are producing “near active front lines and can weaken the defensive capacity of the hutis, offering a possible indirect support to land operations.”
In this context, allied Yemenis features with the government Sopesan take the opportunity to launch a land military operation and attempt to resume part of the territories under Hutí control, as recently assured Yemeni and American sources to Washington media. The hutis, backed by Iran, dominate the northwest area of Yemen, where most of its population lives, including a good part of the Red Sea coast and the capital, Saná. The Government, on the other hand, controls large areas of the south and the east of the country.
The great objective of the Yemeni features, according to the same media, is to expel the hutis of at least part of the Red Sea coast, from where they have launched attacks against maritime traffic and have imported in the last armament from Iran. The main city of this area is Hodeida, which has the second major port of Yemen and an oil terminal and, in addition, is a key point of entry of humanitarian aid that is sent to the country.
Until now, American bombings against Hutí military infrastructure have hit objectives such as weapons deposits, training fields, underground bases, command centers and missile and drone launch points. But the rebels have extensive experience in front of air attacks and have been shielding their positions for months, adapting their tactics and investing in a new armament for.
