An American airstrike hit a densely populated area of the Yemeni capital on Sunday, killing 12 people and injuring 30, according to the health ministry of the Houthi-led government.
Two witnesses who live in the capital, Sana, said that the attack struck a neighborhood near the Old City, a densely populated Unesco world heritage site that is filled with ancient towers. One witness, who identified himself only by his first name Yahya, said that a bakery in the Farwah neighborhood had burned down, killing its owner, and that the damage to nearby homes had displaced many people.
A man who identified himself as Yasir described seeing a large crater, and said that he could not imagine what the target could have been in a neighborhood which, he said, is inhabited by “simple people,” many of whom operate grocery stores and sell tobacco.
Both men spoke on the condition of partial anonymity to avoid retribution. The Iran-backed Houthis have ruled northern Yemen with an iron fist since they ousted the internationally recognized government in 2014.
The strike on Sunday appeared to be part of an escalating drive by the Trump administration against the Houthis. The militia has been firing rockets and drones at Israel and attacking ships in the nearby Red Sea, in a campaign that its leaders say is in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Anees Alasbahi, a Houthi health ministry spokesman, said that 12 people were killed and 30 injured in the strike in Farwah. The toll could not be independently verified.
The U.S. defense department, in a written response to questions about the Houthi claims, did not comment on this specific strike, saying only that the United States was targeting “Iran-backed Houthi locations every day and night in Yemen,” with the intention of restoring freedom of navigation and deterring the Houthis from further attacks.
For nearly a decade Yemen has been at war. After the Houthis, a once-scrappy tribal militia, took over the Yemeni capital, the country has been pummeled by a Saudi-led military coalition supplied with American bombs in an effort to defeat the them.
That coalition expected swift victory. Instead, hundreds of thousands of people have died from fighting, hunger and disease. And since the coalition pulled back several years ago, partly because of international pressure, the Houthis have only deepened their grip on power, evolving into a de facto government in northern Yemen.
The Houthis began their latest attacks in late 2023, after Hamas stormed into southern Israel, killing more than 1,000 people and taking hundreds captive, and Israel responded by bombarding Gaza, killing more than 50,000 people so far. The Houthis have described their attacks on ships in particular as an attempt to pressure Israel and outside nations to increase the free flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, where more than two million Palestinians have struggled to obtain food and water.
The Houthis say they are attacking ships with Israeli or American ties, although many of the targeted vessels have had no clear link to either country.
The United States and Britain began bombarding Houthi targets last year, saying they were attempting to halt the Houthi attacks on shipping and on Israel.
The militia briefly stopped firing rockets at Israel during a two-month cease-fire between Israel and Hamas this year. But after a cease-fire ended in mid-March, Israel renewed its offensive in Gaza and the Houthis resumed firing ballistic missiles at Israeli territory.
The Trump administration began its own campaign of airstrikes in March.
So far the American campaign has not appeared to deter the Houthis. Yemeni scholars who study the group have repeatedly warned that American airstrikes will simply play into the militia’s agenda.
On Monday, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a statement that the Houthis had attacked Israel with two drones and attempted to attack a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Red Sea with drones and missiles.
“Dozens of U.S. airstrikes will not deter us from our supportive stance toward the oppressed Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, until the aggression against them stops and the siege is lifted,” Mr. Sarea said.
Vivian Nereim is the lead reporter for The Times covering the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. She is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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