Attacked US aircraft carrier twice in 24 hrs: Houthis claimed

Sanaa/Yemen: Houthis of Yemen claimed on Monday that it had struck an American aircraft carrier group twice in 24 hours. The attack was in retaliation to the deadly strikes the US carried out in Yemen, targeting the Iran-backed rebels, under US President Donald Trump’s orders, Agence France-Presse reported.

Houthis claimed to have launched 18 missiles and a drone first at USS Harry Truman, the aircraft carrier, and those warships accompanied it in the Red Sea. It launched a second attack some hours later, Houthis said.

While the US is yet to issue comment on the Houthi attack, the militant group informed via Telegram that they initiated the attack in retaliation to the deadly strikes Trump ordered into Yemeni territory.

The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the US strikes killed at least 53 people, including five women and two children, and wounded almost 100 in the capital of Sanaa and other provinces, including Saada, the rebels' stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia.

“We're not going to have these people controlling which ships can go through and which ones cannot. So, your question is, how long will this go on? It will go on until they no longer have the capability to do that," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS on Sunday.

President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to use “overwhelming lethal force” until the Houthis cease their attacks and warned that Tehran would be held “fully accountable” for their actions.

The Houthis have repeatedly targeted shipping in the Red Sea, sinking two vessels, in what they call acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally. The attacks stopped when an Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in January — a day before Trump took office — but last week, the Houthis said they would renew attacks against Israeli vessels after Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month.