US vows to keep hitting Houthis until shipping attacks stop

A ship fires missiles at an undisclosed location, after US President Donald Trump launched military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping. (Reuters via US Central Command)
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A ship fires missiles at an undisclosed location, after US President Donald Trump launched military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping. (Reuters via US Central Command)
Smoke rises from a location reportedly struck by US airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP)
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Smoke rises from a location reportedly struck by US airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 17 March 2025
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US vows to keep hitting Houthis until shipping attacks stop

US vows to keep hitting Houthis until shipping attacks stop
  • Houthis spokesperson said, without offering evidence, that the group had targeted US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and its warships in the Red Sea
  • US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, dismissed the claims
  • Houthi-run health ministry said the death toll of the US attacks has risen to 53 while the number of injuries rose to 98

WASHINGTON/ADEN: The United States will keep attacking Yemen’s Houthis until they end attacks on shipping, the US defense secretary said on Sunday, as the Iran-aligned group signaled it could escalate in response to deadly US strikes the day before.
The airstrikes are the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January. One US official told Reuters the campaign might continue for weeks.

A spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry said the death toll of the US attacks has risen to 53. Five children and two women were among the victims while the number of injuries rose to 98, Anees Alsbahi, the spokesperson, added on X.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said on Sunday that his militants would target US ships in the Red Sea as long as the US continues its attacks on Yemen. “If they continue their aggression, we will continue the escalation,” he said in a televised speech.
The Houthi movement’s political bureau described the attacks as a “war crime,” while Moscow urged Washington to cease the strikes.
The Houthis’ military spokesperson on Sunday said, without offering evidence, that the group had targeted US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and its warships in the Red Sea with ballistic missiles and drones in response to the US attacks.
A US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters, dismissed the claims, saying they were not aware of any Houthi attack on the Truman.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures“: “The minute the Houthis say we’ll stop shooting at your ships, we’ll stop shooting at your drones. This campaign will end, but until then it will be unrelenting.”
“This is about stopping the shooting at assets ... in that critical waterway, to reopen freedom of navigation, which is a core national interest of the United States, and Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long,” he said. “They better back off.”

 

The Houthis, who have taken control of most of Yemen over the past decade, said last week they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea if Israel did not lift a block on aid entering Gaza.
They had launched scores of attacks on shipping after Israel’s war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians.
Trump also told Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, to stop supporting the group immediately. He said if Iran threatened the United States, “America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!“

Iran warns US not to escalate
In response, Hossein Salami, the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said the Houthis made their own decisions.
“We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they carry out their threats,” he told state media.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday called for “utmost restraint and a cessation of all military activities” in Yemen and warned new escalation could “fuel cycles of retaliation that may further destabilize Yemen and the region, and pose grave risks to the already dire humanitarian situation in the country,” his spokesperson said in a statement.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” program: “There’s no way the ... Houthis would have the ability to do this kind of thing unless they had support from Iran. And so this was a message to Iran: don’t keep supporting them, because then you will also be responsible for what they are doing in attacking Navy ships and attacking global shipping.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Rubio to urge an “immediate cessation of the use of force and the importance for all sides to engage in political dialogue,” Moscow said.
Most of the 31 people confirmed killed in the US strikes were women and children, said Anees Al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry. More than 100 were injured.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the claims of civilian casualties. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
Residents in Sanaa said the strikes hit a neighborhood known to host several members of the Houthi leadership.
“The explosions were violent and shook the neighborhood like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children,” said one of the residents, who gave his name as Abdullah Yahia.
In Sanaa, a crane and bulldozer were used to remove debris at one site and people used their bare hands to pick through the rubble. At a hospital, medics treated the injured, including children, and the bodies of several casualties were placed in a yard, wrapped in plastic sheets, Reuters footage showed.
Strikes also targeted Houthi military sites in the city of Taiz, two witnesses said on Sunday.

Houthis’ Red Sea attacks disrupt global trade route 
Another strike, on a power station in the town of Dahyan, led to a power cut, Al-Masirah TV reported early on Sunday. Dahyan is where Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, the enigmatic leader of the Houthis, often meets visitors.
The Houthi attacks on shipping have disrupted global commerce and set the US military off on a costly campaign to intercept missiles and drones.
The group suspended its campaign when Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza in January.
But on March 12, the Houthis said their threat to attack Israeli ships would remain in effect until Israel reapproved the delivery of aid and food into Gaza.


For Iraqi Christians, pope’s visit was a rare moment of hope

For Iraqi Christians, pope’s visit was a rare moment of hope
Updated 11 sec ago
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For Iraqi Christians, pope’s visit was a rare moment of hope

For Iraqi Christians, pope’s visit was a rare moment of hope
  • His 2021 visit to Iraq, the first ever by a pope, came after years of conflict and displacement

BAGHDAD: The death of Pope Francis has sent shockwaves through Iraq’s Christian community, where his presence once brought hope after one of the darkest chapters in the country’s recent history.

His 2021 visit to Iraq, the first ever by a pope, came after years of conflict and displacement. Just a few years before that, many Iraqi Christians had fled their homes as Daesh militants swept across the country.

Christian communities in Iraq, once numbering over a million, had already been reduced to a fraction of their former number by decades of conflict and mass emigration.

In Mosul, the site of some of the fiercest battles between Iraqi security forces and Daesh, Chaldean Archbishop Najeeb Moussa Michaeel recalled the pope’s visit to the battle-scarred city at a time when many visitors were still afraid to come as a moment of joy, “like a wedding for the people of Mosul.”

“He broke this barrier and stood firm in the devastated city of Mosul, proclaiming a message of love, brotherhood, and peaceful coexistence,” Michaeel said.

As Francis delivered a speech in the city’s Al-Midan area, which had been almost completely reduced to rubble, the archbishop said, he saw tears falling from the pope’s eyes.

Sa’dullah Rassam, who was among the Christians who fled from Mosul in 2014 in the face of the Daesh offensive, was also crying as he watched the pope leave the church in Midan that day.

Rassam had spent years displaced in Irbil, the seat of northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, but was among the first Christians to return to Mosul, where he lives in a small house next to the church that Francis had visited.

As the pope’s convoy was leaving the church, Rassam stood outside watching.

“It was the best day of my life,” Rassam said. 


Turkiye’s opposition set to defy protest ban on Wednesday

Turkiye’s opposition set to defy protest ban on Wednesday
Updated 47 min 35 sec ago
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Turkiye’s opposition set to defy protest ban on Wednesday

Turkiye’s opposition set to defy protest ban on Wednesday
  • Ozel reiterated a call to stage the rally in a post on X late Tuesday despite a government banned on gatherings
  • “April 23 cannot be banned,” he said

ISTANBUL: Turkiye’s opposition has called on supporters to rally outside the parliament in Ankara on Wednesday in defiance of an official ban on gatherings on a symbolic day for the republic.
A month after the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s biggest political rival — the president of Imamoglu’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) said he would speak outside parliament as the country marks National Sovereignty Day.
Ozgur Ozel, who was recently named as leader of the CHP, which was established by the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Ozel reiterated a call to stage the rally in a post on X late Tuesday despite a government banned on gatherings.
“April 23 cannot be banned. Our gathering in front of parliament and our march to Anitkabir (Ataturk’s Tomb) cannot be stopped,” he said.
“I invite all residents of Ankara, especially young people and students, and everyone who will be in Ankara tomorrow, to go to Parliament at 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT), Turkish flags in hand. Sovereignty belongs to the nation.”
Imamoglu also referenced the rally from his cell at Silivri prison in Istanbul, where he has been held on corruption charges since March 25.
“I will watch this march for national sovereignty from prison. I will be at your sides. I will be marching with you,” Imamoglu said on X.
Imamoglu’s arrest has triggered a wave of protests in Turkiye’s main cities primarily driven by young people.


Israel shares, then deletes, condolences over pope’s death

Israel shares, then deletes, condolences over pope’s death
Updated 22 April 2025
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Israel shares, then deletes, condolences over pope’s death

Israel shares, then deletes, condolences over pope’s death
  • The foreign ministry said the pope had made 'statements against Israel' and that the social media post had been published in 'error'
  • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads a far-right coalition of religious and nationalist parties, has not commented on the pope’s death

JERUSALEM: The Israeli government shared and then deleted a social media post offering condolences over the death of Pope Francis, without saying why, though an Israeli newspaper linked the decision to the late pontiff’s criticism of the war in Gaza.
The verified @Israel account had posted on Monday a message on social media platform X that read: “Rest in Peace, Pope Francis. May his memory be a blessing,” alongside an image of the pope visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem Post quoted officials at the foreign ministry as saying that the pope had made “statements against Israel” and that the social media post had been published in “error.”
The foreign ministry, which social media platform X states on its website is linked to the verified @Israel account, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Francis, who died on Monday aged 88, suggested last November that the global community should study whether Israel’s military campaign in Gaza constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people, in some of his most explicit criticism yet of Israel’s conduct in its war with Hamas that began in Oct. 2023.
In January the pope also called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “shameful,” prompting criticism from Rome’s chief Jewish rabbi who accused Francis of “selective indignation.”
Israel says accusations of genocide in its Gaza campaign are baseless and that it is solely hunting down Hamas and other armed groups.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads a far-right coalition of religious and nationalist parties, has not commented on the pope’s death.
However, Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday sent a message of condolence to Christians in the Holy Land and around the world, describing Francis as “a man of deep faith and boundless compassion.”
Relations between the Catholic Church and Judaism have improved in recent decades, after centuries of animosity.
Pope Francis was usually careful during his 12-year pontificate about taking sides in conflicts, and he condemned the growth of antisemitic groups, while also speaking by phone with Gaza’s tiny Christian community every evening during the war.
Francis in 2014 visited the Western Wall — the most sacred prayer site in Judaism — and also prayed at a section of a wall built by Israel in the occupied West Bank dividing Jerusalem and Bethlehem.


Detained Palestinian activist in Vermont prison says he’s ‘in good hands,’ focused on peacemaking

Detained Palestinian activist in Vermont prison says he’s ‘in good hands,’ focused on peacemaking
Updated 22 April 2025
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Detained Palestinian activist in Vermont prison says he’s ‘in good hands,’ focused on peacemaking

Detained Palestinian activist in Vermont prison says he’s ‘in good hands,’ focused on peacemaking
  • “I’m staying positive by reassuring myself in the ability of justice and the deep belief of democracy,” Mahdawi said
  • The US Justice Department has not said why he’s being detained

VERMONT, USA: A Palestinian man who led protests against the war in Gaza as a student at Columbia University and was recently arrested during an interview about finalizing his US citizenship says he’s “in good hands” at the Vermont prison where he is being held.
Mohsen Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident, was arrested April 14 in Colchester, Vermont. He met Monday with US Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont, a Democrat, who posted it on X.
“I’m staying positive by reassuring myself in the ability of justice and the deep belief of democracy,” Mahdawi said in Welch’s video. “This is the reason I wanted to become a citizen of this country, because I believe in the principles of this country.”
Welch’s office said Mahdawi was being detained at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, Vermont. His case is scheduled for a status conference Wednesday. His lawyers have called for his release.
The US Justice Department has not said why he’s being detained. The New York Times reported April 15 that Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote a memo that says Mahdawi’s activities could “potentially undermine” the Middle East peace process.
“We do not comment on on any ongoing litigation,” the State Department press office said in response to an email seeking comment.
Rubio has cited a rarely used statute to justify the deportation of Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil. It gives Rubio power to deport those who pose “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
An immigration judge ruled April 11 that Khalil can be forced out of the country as a national security risk, after lawyers argued the legality of deporting the activist who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. His lawyers plan to appeal.
Mahdawi said that in studying for his citizenship test, he learned “that the freedom of speech and religion and assembly is guaranteed to everyone in the United States, which is part of the foundation of this country.”
Mahdawi said his work “has been centered on peacemaking.”
“My empathy, as I mentioned before, extends beyond the Palestinian people and my empathy extends to the Jews and to the Israelis,” he said. “And my hope and my dream is to see this conflict, if one might say, to see an end to the war, an end to the killing, to see a peaceful resolution between Palestinians and Israelis. How could this be a threat to anybody, except the war machine that is feeding this?”
Welch responded, “It would be good for everybody for us to have peace.”
Mahdawi said, “I want to tell everyone that I feel so loved and so supported. And I am here in good hands. I am centered, I am clear, I am grounded. And I don’t want you to worry about me.”
According to the court filing, Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. He recently completed coursework at Columbia and was expected to graduate in May before beginning a master’s degree program there in the fall.
As a student, Mahdawi was an outspoken critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and organized campus protests until March 2024.


Man missing after reported shark attack off Israel’s coast

Man missing after reported shark attack off Israel’s coast
Updated 22 April 2025
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Man missing after reported shark attack off Israel’s coast

Man missing after reported shark attack off Israel’s coast
  • Shark attacks have not been reported in Israel for decades
  • Police spokesman Aryeh Doron said that “several findings have been sent for examination“

HADERA, Israel: Israeli police have been searching for a man reported missing following a suspected shark attack off the country’s Mediterranean coast, the force said on Tuesday.
Shark attacks have not been reported in Israel for decades.
Police spokesman Aryeh Doron said that “several findings have been sent for examination,” without specifying the nature of the recovered evidence.
Search operations continued Tuesday in the southeastern Mediterranean, near the area of the central city of Hadera where the swimmer had disappeared.
“The search area is very large, very complex, especially due to the danger posed by diving near sharks,” said Doron Elmashali, commander of the fire and rescue unit involved in the operation.
He said underwater cameras were being used in the operation.
Emergency organizations Magen David Adom and Zaka on Monday said they had been informed of a man’s disappearance off the coast near Hadera, after witnesses said he had been attacked by a shark.
An AFP journalist at the site saw shark silhouettes with dorsal fins breaking through the water’s surface.
Israeli media have broadcast several videos in recent days showing sharks swimming near bathers, including children. One video appears to show a swimmer being attacked.
Police said Tuesday that a ban on entering the sea along large stretches of the coast would remain in effect.
Shark attacks in the calm waters of the Mediterranean are rare, but shark sightings, particularly off the coast of Hadera, are well documented, as dozens are known to gather near the local power station in winter months.
The plant uses sea water to cool its turbines, then discharges the warm water which is believed to attract sandbar and dusky sharks.
Although these species can grow to several meters in length, they are generally not aggressive toward humans.
The seasonal shark population off Hadera has increased in recent years, likely due to the expansion of the power plant and the implementation of legislation prohibiting their capture.
The Israeli Nature and Parks Authority and the Israeli diving association have issued warnings urging divers drawn by the presence of the sharks not to approach them.