U.S. to End Bombings of Houthi Militants in Yemen, Trump Says

The Washington Post

15:46 JST, May 7, 2025

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States will halt its targeting of Yemen’s Houthi militants, 51 days after he pledged a campaign of “overwhelming lethal force” against the Iran-backed group in response to its attacks on commercial shipping and military vessels in the Red Sea.

Trump, speaking in the Oval Office, unexpectedly said the Houthis “don’t want to fight anymore,” and that the United States will “honor that” and stop its bombing in Yemen.

“They have capitulated, but more importantly, we will take their own word,” Trump said. “They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that’s the purpose of what we were doing.”

U.S. officials offered few additional details about the abrupt change in strategy, which follows weeks in which Trump administration officials touted the U.S. military operation as a success story while disclosing few details about it.

The Defense Department offered its most substantive public assessment of the operation, begun in mid-March, only last week, writing in a lengthy statement that to date, U.S. forces had struck more than 800 Houthi targets, killed hundreds of the group’s fighters and leaders, and destroyed an array of headquarters, weapons depots, and missiles poised to be launched. Defense officials later said the number of targets hit exceeded 1,000.

In the background, however, the campaign against the Houthis was beset by missteps and controversy, including the stunning revelation that top Trump administration officials coordinated the opening salvos having unwittingly included a journalist in their unclassified chat group on the messaging application Signal. The blunder precipitated last week’s ouster of Trump’s national security adviser and unleashed a torrent of news accounts scrutinizing the judgment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who divulged highly sensitive details about the U.S. attack plan before the mission was underway.

The Trump administration’s prosecution of the Yemen campaign also was marred by a strike late last month resulting in the deaths of dozens of suspected civilians, and the loss of a $67.4 million fighter jet that U.S. military officials said fell off an aircraft carrier after the vessel took evasive action to avoid a Houthi missile attack.

Trump, in the Oval Office, denied Tuesday that he had made a “deal” with the Houthis and provided few additional details about the decision, saying he had just learned of it. The arrangement, he said, was “effective immediately.”

“They’ve said, ‘Please don’t bomb us anymore, and we’re not going to attack your ships,’” Trump said.

Trump administration officials disclosed few details about the agreement, pointing to a social media post from Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al Busaidi, who said that a ceasefire agreement had been brokered with Oman’s assistance.

Trump did not make clear whether the truce would extend to escalating exchanges of fire between the Houthis and Israel. After Israel’s failure to intercept a Houthi missile that landed Sunday on the outskirts of its Ben Gurion Airport, Israel bombed and severely damaged Yemen’s main airport in Sanaa, the capital, on Tuesday.

The Omani statement referred only to an end to targeting ships, “including American vessels, in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait,” the narrow passage connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the larger Arabian Sea.

In a statement calling Trump’s claim “inaccurate,” Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi Political Council, told Bloomberg News that operations in the Red Sea and Israel “will not stop regardless of the consequences until the end of the aggression on Gaza and blockade on its people.”

Israel did not issue any public reaction to the announced agreement. Israeli media reported that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not informed of the deal in advance.

Hegseth, posting from his personal account on X, cited the Omani foreign minister’s comments and said that “from Day One,” the Trump administration wanted to ensure freedom of navigation for vessels in the region.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the region, did not respond to requests for comment.

The Houthis began launching missiles and drone attacks on vessels at sea late in 2023 in solidarity with Hamas, the Iranian proxy group whose vicious attack on Israel in October of that year triggered the wider Gaza war.

The Biden administration repeatedly warned the Houthis, who seized control of much of Yemen in 2014 after a civil war, and launched airstrikes on them beginning in January 2024. The Houthis were undeterred, however, prompting the U.S. Navy to rotate warships through the region in some of the most significant naval combat the service had seen in years.

Trump cast former president Joe Biden’s response as weak, also warning Iran in March – as he approved strikes against the Houthis – that its military support for the militants was unacceptable and Tehran “will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences” for the Houthis’ actions.

Administration officials have continued to issue similarly stark warnings to Iran in recent days, with Hegseth declaring on social media last week: “You will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing.”

But State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters not to “conflate” its dealings with Iran with the “good news” of the Houthi agreement. The administration is holding separate talks with Tehran about its nuclear program. A fourth round of discussions was postponed last week; the administration has not confirmed reports that the talks would continue Sunday.