President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the U.S. will end bombing campaigns against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Trump said the Houthi terrorists had “capitulated,” and that bombing operations would cease immediately after the group said they would stop bombing ships in the Gulf of Aden and other locations, Trump said in a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. The Houthi rebels have targeted commercial ships and U.S. Naval vessels since 2023, causing billions of dollars in economic damage as global shipping was cut off from the Suez Canal in the Red Sea.
“This was always a freedom of navigation issue,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during the conference. “The job was to get that to stop, and if it’s going to stop, then we can stop.”
Trump’s announcement comes just hours after Israel launched a second massive strike on the rebel-occupied Sanaa Airport in Yemen after Monday’ strike killed four and injured 39.
Trump began the bombing campaign against the rebels in March after Trump repeatedly warned the Houthis that their attacks would not go without consequences for both them and Iran, their prime benefactor.
Iran has supported the Shia Muslim rebels militarily and logistically since 2009, ramping up their commitment after the rebels captured Sanaa in 2014, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Iran sends between $100 and $300 million of aid annually to the rebels, according to estimates from the Wilson Center.
Trump re-designated the rebels as a foreign terrorist organization in March after Biden removed the designation during his term. Moreover, Trump also expanded commanders’ abilities to conduct strikes broader range of targets with less executive oversight emblematic of the Biden administration.
The Houthis have attacked U.S. naval vessels over 170 times since 2023, while costing commercial vessels nearly $1 million extra in fuel while adding roughly two weeks of transit time around Africa. Shipping traffic through the Red Sea declined by 90% from December 2023 to February 2024 due to Houthi attacks on commercial shipping vessels, according to a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), responsible for the US military presence in the Middle East, said in a statement April 27 they had hit over 800 targets across Yemen since the operation began.
The Pentagon deferred to Trump’s comments, while the State Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
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