US strikes ‘have killed 500 Houthis in one month’

The targeted attacks have killed high ranking commanders and the masterminds behind the Red Sea attacks and wiped out entire training camps.

US air strikes targeting the Ras Isa port complex in Hudaydah killed at least 75 people. Picture: Getty Images.

US air strikes have killed at least 500 Houthis rebels in Yemen, and possibly up to 650 in the last month including high ranking commanders, according to intelligence and Yemeni government sources.

America’s Central Command (CentCom) has carried out scores of strikes in the last five weeks, including an attack that killed 12 people in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a over the weekend.

But while the US military has remained tight-lipped about the results of its strikes, the Saudi owned al-Arabiya news site reports that missile system operators and drone experts are among hundreds killed in the last few weeks. The strikes have also destroyed multiple Houthi training camps, with no survivors among the fighters, al-Arabiya reports.

Yemen’s Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani told al-Arabiya the Yemeni government had confirmed the deaths of several senior Houthi leaders. “These include military leaders as well as masterminds behind maritime attacks and arms smuggling operations from Iran,” he said.

The strikes represented a “strategic shift in addressing this issue,” said Mr Al-Eryani, adding that they had targeted “significant elements of Houthi military infrastructure, including command and control centres, training camps, weapons depots, and communication facilities used to co-ordinate their attacks.”

The site reports that Houthi commanders had pressured the families of slain fighters to keep quiet, and only acknowledged the deaths of lower-ranking members to avoid sparking panic.

Recently, Jamal al-Maamari, a Yemeni who was captured in 2015 and spent 1114 days in Houthi captivity, posted a list of 650 Houthis he said had been killed.

As the US steps up its campaign against the rebel group, CentCom also hit the Houthi controlled Ras Isa fuel port last week, killing at least 74 people and wounding 171 others.

The strikes follow the resumption of negotiations in Rome between the US and Iran over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, which Washington has linked to its attacks in Yemen.

The Houthis are the last militant group in Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” that is capable of regularly attacking Israel.

The new campaign started after the rebels threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid from entering the Gaza Strip.

From November 2023 until this January, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it. The Houthis also launched attacks targeting American warships without success.

With AP