The US president demanded the Yemeni-based militants stop their attacks on ships immediately or face "hell"

The US has launched a major military operation against the Yemeni-based Houthi militants, President Donald Trump said on Saturday. The effort involves air strikes on their "bases, leaders, and missile defenses," he said, adding that it was aimed at restoring freedom of navigation in the adjacent waters.

In a statement on Truth Social, Trump accused the Houthis of waging an "unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones." 

According to the president, the militants have been hindering international commercial navigation in the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and Gulf of Aden.

"It has been over a year since a U.S. flagged commercial ship safely sailed," Trump said and demanded the Houthis stop their attacks. "If they don't, hell will rain down upon [the militants] like nothing you have ever seen before," he warned.

The president also warned Iran against providing any support to the Yemeni-based group or "threatening" the US. "Support for the Houthi terrorist must end immediately," he wrote, adding that the US would otherwise hold Iran "fully accountable and, we won't be nice about it." 

Tehran has yet to comment on the development.

The Ansar Allah movement, commonly known as the Houthis, has controlled a large part of war-torn Yemen since the mid-2010s. The Iran-backed Shia group has targeted merchant vessels and fired ballistic missiles at Israel in protest against the war in Gaza. The US, UK and Israel have responded by bombing Houthi-linked military sites and infrastructure in Yemen.

In January, the Trump administration redesignated the Houthis as a terrorist group. The group had fired missiles at US warships "dozens of times" and launched "more than 300 projectiles" at Israel since 2023, said an executive order signed by Trump.