An F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jet on April 1, 2025, prepares for launch on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman during flight operations in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy)
WASHINGTON — American forces have hit more than 1,000 Houthi targets in Yemen as part of a campaign that began in March to stop attacks by the militants on the shipping lanes of the Red Sea, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
Since March 15, strikes conducted by U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, have killed Houthi fighters and leaders and degraded their capabilities, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to mark the first 100 days of the Defense Department during President Donald Trump’s second administration.
The latest number is an increase from a CENTCOM statement issued Sunday that said U.S. forces have struck more than 800 targets. Dubbed Operation Rough Rider, the strikes have also taken out multiple command-and-control facilities, air defense systems, weapons storage and production sites.
Pentagon officials have said the strikes will continue against the Houthis until the militants halt attacks on military and merchant vessels transiting shipping lanes in and near the Red Sea. Trump has also threatened to go after their backers in Iran if the maritime attacks don’t stop.
The operation has been conducted by an assembly of forces that includes the strike groups of two aircraft carriers — the USS Harry S. Truman and USS Carl Vinson.
For years, the Houthis have targeted ships transiting Egypt’s Suez Canal, one of the world’s most used shipping routes because it bridges the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. But in the past year, the Houthis have ramped up their attacks, in what they call acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas militants, another Iranian ally.
Former President Joe Biden began strikes against the Houthis in January 2024 in a bid to break the group’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
