The Houthis announced that they launched 18 ballistic and cruise missiles, along with a drone, targeting the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and its accompanying warships in the northern Red Sea on Sunday.

Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree stated that the attack was a response to more than 47 US airstrikes on rebel-controlled areas in Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa, and the province of Saada.

“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea in retaliation for the aggression against our country,” Saree declared.

Both the United States and the Houthis have warned of further escalation following the US airstrikes, which aimed to deter the rebels from attacking military and commercial vessels in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea, sinking two vessels, claiming their actions were in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid Israel’s war with Hamas, another Iranian-backed group.

These attacks halted when an Israel-Hamas ceasefire took effect in January, a day before Trump took office.

However, last week, the Houthis announced they would resume targeting Israeli vessels after Israel cut off humanitarian aid to Gaza.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told US media on Sunday “We’re not going to have these people controlling which ships can go through and which ones cannot. And so your question is, how long will this go on? It will go on until they no longer have the capability to do that,”.

He emphasised that these strikes will be different to the Biden administration one off attacks.

Until Sunday, there had been no reported Houthi attacks since the ceasefire.

The Houthi-run Health Ministry reported that the US airstrikes on Saturday killed at least 31 people, including women and children, and wounded over 100 in Sanaa and Saada, the rebels’ stronghold near the Saudi border. These strikes were among the most extensive against the Houthis since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.

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

But on Sunday, Iran denied any involvement in aiding the Houthis carry out the attack. General Hossein Salami, head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said on state-run TV that Iran “plays no role in setting the national or operational policies” of the militant groups it is allied with across the region.