President Donald Trump ordered a new, large-scale U.S. military campaign against Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen on March 15, 2025, saying the operation was intended to protect American forces and restore freedom of navigation through the Red Sea and surrounding waters.
U.S. Central Command said its forces began a series of precision strikes against Houthi targets across Yemen that day. The operation marked a significant expansion of the U.S. military response to Houthi attacks on commercial shipping and naval vessels.
Trump also issued a direct warning to Iran, which has supplied the Houthis with weapons and other support. Iran has acknowledged political support for the group but has disputed claims that it directs individual Houthi military operations.
What the United States said it was targeting
The administration said the strikes were aimed at degrading Houthi capabilities used to threaten U.S. forces and vessels moving through the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Gulf of Aden.
CENTCOM described the March 15 operation as a campaign against Iran-backed Houthi targets designed to defend U.S. interests, deter further attacks and restore freedom of navigation. In a later report to Congress, Trump said U.S. Navy ships and aircraft, Air Force bombers and fighters, and unmanned aircraft had participated in the campaign.
That White House report to Congress said targets included Houthi leadership, command-and-control facilities, military equipment and munitions-storage sites.
The USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group was operating in the region at the time of the opening attacks.
Trump warns the Houthis and Iran
In announcing the operation on Truth Social, Trump demanded that Houthi attacks on shipping stop and said the United States would use military force until its objective was achieved. He also told Iran to end its support for the movement and warned that Washington would hold Tehran accountable for threats against U.S. forces and international shipping.
The administration's public description of the operation linked two objectives: weakening the Houthis' ability to launch missiles and drones and restoring safer passage through one of the world's most important maritime trade routes.
The White House said on March 15 that Houthi attacks had sharply reduced shipping through the Red Sea. Its figures, citing U.S. intelligence assessments, said approximately 25,000 merchant vessels traveled the route annually before the attacks, compared with roughly 10,000 afterward. Those figures were part of the administration's justification for the operation and should be understood as U.S. government estimates.
Why the Red Sea matters
The Houthis, formally known as Ansar Allah, control much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa. Beginning in late 2023, they repeatedly launched missiles and drones at commercial and military vessels in and around the Red Sea.
The group said its campaign was connected to the war in Gaza and initially described Israeli-linked shipping as its principal target. In practice, attacks and attempted attacks affected a wider range of commercial vessels and brought U.S. and allied naval forces into repeated confrontations with the group.
More than 100 attacks on commercial shipping were reported after the campaign began, while U.S. officials also recorded repeated attacks or attempted attacks against American naval forces.
The disruption forced many shipping companies to avoid the Red Sea and Suez Canal and instead route vessels around the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa, adding distance, time and expense to voyages between Asia and Europe.
Major shipping companies continued to publish Red Sea security restrictions and routing changes on their websites. For example, websites of major container shipping companies documented continued diversions around southern Africa.
Houthi attacks had slowed during the Gaza ceasefire
Following the Gaza ceasefire that took effect in January 2025, Houthi attacks on shipping largely subsided. The group said it would reduce operations while the agreement was being implemented.
That pause became increasingly fragile after Israel stopped the entry of goods into Gaza in early March amid a dispute over the next phase of the ceasefire. The Houthis have threatened to increase their attacks, saying Israeli-linked vessels could again be targeted.
That threat was one of the developments preceding the renewed U.S. military campaign, although Washington also cited the broader history of Houthi attacks on U.S. forces and international shipping.
Casualty reports were initially difficult to verify
The opening wave of U.S. strikes hit Sanaa and other Houthi-controlled areas. Early reports from the Houthi-run health authorities gave lower casualty figures that increased as rescue operations continued.
By March 16, Houthi authorities said at least 53 people had been killed in the strikes. Reuters reported that the total included women and children. Those casualty figures came from Houthi-controlled authorities and were not independently verified at the time.
The Houthis condemned the attacks and vowed to retaliate. U.S. officials, meanwhile, said the campaign would continue until the group's threat to American forces and maritime navigation was reduced.
How the operation differed from earlier U.S. strikes
The Biden administration had also ordered extensive U.S. and British strikes against Houthi military facilities beginning in January 2024. Those operations attempted to reduce the group's missile and drone capabilities after repeated attacks on commercial shipping.
Despite those strikes and numerous interceptions at sea, the Houthis retained the ability to launch missiles and drones. Their mobile launchers, underground facilities and weapons stockpiles made the military infrastructure difficult to eliminate completely.
The Trump administration presented the March 2025 operation as a broader and more sustained campaign. Officials indicated that the target set could include leadership figures, command facilities and weapons infrastructure rather than relying primarily on strikes responding to individual attacks.
Trump later told Congress that he had directed the operation under his constitutional authority as commander in chief and chief executive. His March report was submitted under the War Powers Resolution, which requires presidents to inform Congress about certain deployments and uses of U.S. armed forces.
The Iran connection
Iran has provided weapons, training and other forms of assistance to the Houthis, according to the United States and other governments. The relationship makes Yemen part of a broader regional confrontation involving Iran and armed groups aligned with Tehran.
However, the extent of Iranian control over individual Houthi decisions has long been disputed. Iranian officials have rejected U.S. assertions that Tehran should be treated as directly responsible for every Houthi operation, while U.S. officials have emphasized Iran's material support for the group's military capabilities.
The March strikes therefore carried significance beyond Yemen. Trump was simultaneously pursuing a pressure campaign aimed at Iran's nuclear program and signaling that military options remained available if diplomacy failed.
That did not mean the Yemen strikes were themselves attacks on Iran. They were carried out against Houthi-controlled locations in Yemen, while Trump's warnings to Tehran were political and military warnings about future consequences.
The Houthis' terrorist designations
The Houthis' U.S. terrorism status also changed during this period. In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order directing the government to begin the process of redesignating Ansar Allah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
The order itself did not instantly complete the legal designation. It instructed the secretary of state to conduct the statutory process required under U.S. law. The Foreign Terrorist Organization designation subsequently took effect in April 2025.
Trump's first administration had designated the Houthis as an FTO shortly before leaving office in 2021. The Biden administration revoked that designation soon afterward, citing concerns about its potential impact on humanitarian operations in Yemen.
In 2024, the Biden administration separately designated the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity in response to their Red Sea attacks. That designation carried sanctions but was legally distinct from an FTO designation.
What happened next
The March 15 strikes became the beginning of a sustained campaign rather than a single night of attacks. Subsequent U.S. operations struck additional Houthi-controlled locations across Yemen as the group threatened retaliation and continued challenging U.S. forces in the region.
By April 27, CENTCOM said U.S. forces had struck more than 800 targets since the operation began on March 15. The command said it was limiting disclosure of operational details for security reasons.
That later figure illustrates how substantially the campaign expanded beyond the initial strikes described when the operation was first announced.
The underlying challenge remained unresolved: the United States sought to stop Houthi attacks without allowing the conflict in Yemen to widen into a direct confrontation with Iran or further worsen Yemen's long-running humanitarian crisis.
Meanwhile, the Houthis continued to present their actions as support for Palestinians. On January 22, their spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam stated on social media that support for the Palestinian cause would remain a priority and that the group's shipping restrictions would depend on implementation of the Gaza ceasefire.
The March 2025 U.S. campaign demonstrated that the Red Sea shipping crisis had evolved from a maritime-security problem into a broader regional confrontation involving Yemen, U.S. military forces, Israel and Iran, with the risk of further escalation remaining a central concern.
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