White House says ‘multiple’ Houthi leaders killed, Iran ‘on notice’

WASHINGTON: US strikes killed multiple Houthi leaders in Yemen, the White House said Sunday, adding Iran was “put on notice” to stop backing the rebel group and its attacks on Red Sea shipping.

The airstrikes Saturday “actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out,” National Security Advisor Michael Waltz told ABC News.

“We just hit them with overwhelming force and put Iran on notice that enough is enough,” he said in a separate appearance on Fox News.

He also reiterated a US warning that “all options are on the table” to prevent Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon.

The US strikes Saturday – the first against the Yemeni rebels since President Donald Trump returned to the White House – killed at least 31 people and wounded 101, the group’s health ministry said Sunday.

Donald Trump launches large-scale strikes on Yemen’s Houthis, at least 31 killed

The Tehran-backed group, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, staunchly oppose Israel and the United States and say the shipping attacks are in protest of Israel’s war in Gaza.

The Houthis have launched scores of drone and missile attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since the outbreak of the war.

US warships have been attacked 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times since 2023, according to the Pentagon, putting a major strain on a sea route that normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic.

Trump, in a lengthy Truth Social post Saturday announcing the latest attacks, warned Houthi leaders that “YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!”

Trump last month sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proposing nuclear talks and saying that in the absence of a deal the matter could be handled “militarily.”

Tehran chafed at that suggestion, saying it would not negotiate while being “threatened.”

Waltz, in his ABC interview, said flatly: “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. All options are on the table to ensure it does not have one.”

He added: “They can either hand it over and give it up in a way that is verifiable, or they can face a whole series of other consequences, but either way, we cannot have a world with the ayatollahs with their finger on the nuclear button.”