US President Donald Trump warned Iran on Monday that it will be punished if its Yemeni allies the Houthis retaliate against a US air assault over the weekend, escalating his rhetoric against Tehran.
"Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump on Saturday ordered large-scale military strikes against dozens of targets in Yemen controlled by Tehran-backed Houthi armed group, saying the attacks aimed at ensuring freedom of navigation through shipping lanes the militants have targeted.
Fresh US air strikes hit Yemen on Monday, the Houthis' Al Masirah TV reported. The Houthi-run health ministry said on Sunday that at least 53 people were killed in the attacks.
At a Pentagon press conference on Monday, lieutenant general Alexus Grynkewich told reporters that military casualties among the Houthis were in the dozens but there were no indications of civilian casualties.
Shortly after Israel's incursion into Gaza triggered by a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, the Shi'ite militant group which seized control of much of Yemen started missile and drone strikes against commercial and military vessels in the Red and Arabian Seas.
They described the effort as a blockade in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Iran and the Houthis have denied close military coordination but weapons experts have linked the Yemeni fighters' advanced arsenal of anti-ship and ballistic missiles to Iranian technology.
US forces have been locked in their most intense naval combat since World War II with the Houthis but have yet to constrain the maritime attacks.
"Let nobody be fooled! The hundreds of attacks being made by Houthi, the sinister mobsters and thugs based in Yemen, who are hated by the Yemeni people, all emanate from, and are created by, IRAN," Trump added.
"Any further attack or retaliation by the 'Houthis' will be met with great force, and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there."
As ceasefires have taken hold pausing combat between Israel and its badly bludgeoned Hamas and Hezbollah militant adversaries, the Houthis have become the vanguard of Tehran's network of armed affiliates in the Middle East.
The Trump administration views their continued harassment of commercial shipping as an obstacle to his fight to bring down prices for US consumers and continued but largely ineffectual targeting of US forces as a nuisance.
"Iran has played “the innocent victim” of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control," Trump said.
"They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, “Intelligence.”
Trump this month demanded Iran agree new deal over its nuclear program or face military attack - an overture rejected by Iran's Supreme Leader as bullying.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Washington would come off worst in any confrontation, insisting that Iran had not been weakened by over a year of direct and proxy conflict with Israel.
