US Airstrikes On Yemen’s Ras Isa Oil Port Kills 74, Houthis Claim
The United States launched a series of airstrikes on Yemen’s Ras Isa oil port in the western Hudaydah governorate, killing at least 74 people and injuring over 171, according to reports from regional media outlets.
The US military targeted the Ras Isa facility on Thursday night with at least two separate strikes.
The second attack hit as rescue teams were attempting to extinguish fires and recover victims from the initial strike, killing at least five paramedics.
The Palestinian Information Center and al-Manar TV reported that the total death toll from the strikes has risen to 38, with 102 people injured.
The Houthi government condemned the attacks, describing them as a war crime aimed at bolstering Israel and facilitating the regime’s “genocide” in Gaza.
“The US deliberately targets civilian infrastructure in Yemen with fabricated pretexts,” the Houthi government said in a statement.
It added that the attack would not go unanswered, warning of “painful punishment” and vowing the US would “harvest nothing but defeat and humiliation.”
The US military justified the strikes by claiming that the port was a source of fuel for the Ansarullah resistance movement.
Other Yemeni governorates, including Sana’a, al-Bayda, and Hudaydah, were also struck in what has been described as the most intense US aerial campaign in Yemen since air operations began last month.
The escalation came under direct orders from US President Donald Trump, according to Houthi officials.
Washington has claimed the military operations are intended to protect commercial shipping in regional waters, claiming that Houthi forces in Sana’a have endangered maritime security.
Houthi officials have rejected the US justification, asserting that their forces have only targeted Israeli ships and vessels supplying Israel.
