WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump vowed Monday that strikes on Yemen’s Houthis will continue until they are no longer a threat to shipping, warning the rebels and their Iranian backers of “real pain” to come.
“The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Shortly after Trump’s threat, Yemeni rebel media said two US strikes Monday hit the island of Kamaran, off the Hodeida coast.
Houthi-held parts of Yemen have faced near daily attacks since the US launched a military offensive on March 15 to stop them threatening vessels in key maritime routes. The first day alone, US officials said they killed senior Houthi leaders, while the rebels’ health ministry said 53 people were killed.
Since then, rebels have announced the continued targeting of US military ships and Israel.
In his post Monday, Trump added that the Houthis had been “decimated” by “relentless” strikes since March 15, saying that US forces “hit them every day and night — Harder and harder.”
Trump’s threat comes as his administration battles a scandal over the accidental leaking of a secret text chat by senior security officials on the Yemen strikes.
It also comes amid a sharpening of Trump’s rhetoric toward Tehran, with the president threatening that “there will be bombing” if Iran does not reach a deal on its nuclear program.
The Houthis began targeting shipping after the start of the Gaza war, claiming solidarity with Palestinians.
Houthi attacks have prevented ships from passing through the Suez Canal, a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic. Ongoing attacks are forcing many companies into a costly detour around the tip of southern Africa.
“Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation,” Trump said.
The rising rhetoric from the Trump administration comes as it copes with the phone text scandal.
The Atlantic magazine revealed last week that its editor — a well-known US journalist — was accidentally included in a chat on the commercially available Signal app where top officials were discussing the Yemen air strikes.
The officials, including Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, discussed details of air strike timings and intelligence — unaware that the highly sensitive information was being simultaneously read by a member of the media.
Trump has rejected calls to sack Waltz or Hegseth and branded the scandal a “witch hunt.”
“This case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday.
 

AÏTAROUN, Lebanon: In the war-devastated southern Lebanese village of Aitaroun on Monday, residents marked the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Fitr among their dead.
Relatives crowded the village’s cemeteries to pray for the more than 100 residents, including fighters from Hezbollah, killed during the war between the militant group and Israel that ended with a fragile ceasefire in November.
“We defied the entire world by being here in Aitaroun to celebrate Eid with our martyrs,” Siham Ftouni said near the grave of her son, a rescuer with an Islamic health organization affiliated with Hezbollah.
“Their blood permitted us to come back to our village,” she said.
During the war, Lebanese state media reported that Israeli troops used explosives in Aitaroun and two nearby villages to blow up houses. The town square is heavily damaged.
Few people have returned to live or to reopen businesses.
The story is the same in other villages in southern Lebanon.
In Aitaroun, more than 90 of the village’s dead — including some who died from natural causes — were buried only a month ago when Israeli troops pulled out.
Under the ceasefire, Israel had 60 days to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon, but it did not pull most of them back until February 18 after the initial deadline was extended.
On Monday, beneath yellow Hezbollah flags, Ftouni and other women clad in black let their grief pour out.
A young girl sat near the grave of a woman, holding her photo surrounded by flowers.
Other pictures, of infants and young men in military uniform, lay on top of graves, and the sound of funeral orations triggered tears.
Some visitors handed out sweets and other foods to mourners who came from further away.
“This year, Eid is different from the years before,” said Salim Sayyed, 60, a farmer originally from Aitaroun. “Aitaroun, which lost more than 120 martyrs including many women and children, is living a sad Eid.”
He added: “The will to live will remain stronger than death.”
The war saw the killing of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders, and the group’s military infrastructure was devastated. Yet it continues to proclaim victory after more than a year of conflict that escalated to full-blown war and killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon.
Despite the ceasefire deal, Israeli troops remain inside Lebanon at five points it deems strategic.
Both Hezbollah and Israel have accused each other of truce violations.
Israel has regularly carried out often-deadly air raids in south and east Lebanon since the ceasefire, striking what it says are Hezbollah military targets that violated the agreement.
On Friday Israel bombed southern Beirut for the first time since the truce after rockets were fired toward its territory.
Imad Hijazi, 55, a taxi driver, said the security uncertainty was no deterrent to those wanting to spend Eid beside the graves of their loved ones.
“The sadness was immense. Everyone was shaken by the loss of loved ones. I lost 23 members of my family in an Israeli strike,” Hijazi said.
“I was ashamed to convey Eid greetings to my relatives or my friends.”