Yemen’s Houthis have suffered three weeks of American airstrikes, but they continue to claim they are targeting US warships in the Red Sea.
The Houthis “clashed with a number of American warships in the northern Red Sea, including the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman,” Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Iran’s official news agency, reported Sunday.
Earlier on Sunday, the Houthis said their missile, UAV, and naval forces had “clashed with a number of American warships in the northern Red Sea, including the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, targeting them with cruise missiles and drones,” Beirut-based Al-Masirah, a Yemini television channel controlled by the Houthis, reported.
The attack against the US ships lasted four hours, according to the Houthis. There has been no evidence that this attack actually happened, and the Houthis have been known for making wild claims in the past.
What matters is that the Houthis want us to think it happened to show they are continuing to fight. This comes after US President Donald Trump posted a video on social media claiming to show an airstrike on a Houthi gathering.
The Houthis said they would continue their fight until “the aggression against Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.”
Houthis refute US claims
The Houthis also claimed the US military had attacked Yemen’s western governorate of Hudaydah at dawn on Sunday. Yemen’s Houthi-run SABA News Agency cited an unnamed local source as saying the American forces had launched five airstrikes on Kamaran Island in Hudaydah, IRNA reported.
The same Houthi media outlets challenged Trump’s claim of having targeted a meeting of Houthis. Instead, they said, the “video released by the ‘criminal Trump’ was related to a public gathering on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr in Hudaydah governorate.” They presented no evidence of this.
The Houthis also bashed the US and Israel.
“This US crime, which left dozens of martyrs dead and wounded, reveals the extent of America’s failure and defeat in its aggression against Yemen and the continuation of the US and Zionist genocide in the Gaza Strip,” a Houthi source told IRNA.
The Houthis’ war of words with the Trump administration illustrates that they intend to continue fighting. They have absorbed losses, but they are used to long wars, having fought the Saudis and other forces in Yemen since 2015.