Shuaib Almosawa
Mar 17, 2025

SANA’A, Yemen—On Saturday, Nasser Mohammed Saad was at a friend’s home celebrating iftar—the evening meal where Muslims break their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan—when he received a distressed call from his family. His house in the al-Jiraf area, north of Yemen’s capital Sana’a, had suffered significant damage from U.S. airstrikes targeting a house just 50 meters away. Rushing home, Saad encountered the aftermath of destruction. "The house's windows were shattered, the doors were torn off, and the water tanks were hit by some shrapnel," Saad, 45, told Drop Site News. His wife and two of his children were inside the house at the time of the attack.

Late last night, U.S. warplanes struck Sana’a and seven other provinces in Yemen in what U.S. defense officials described as the beginning of a large-scale military campaign against the Houthis. Also known as Ansar Allah, the group took control of large swaths of northern Yemen, including the capital city, in 2014. The New York Times reported that Saturday’s strikes in Yemen hit radar, air defenses, and missile and drone systems, though it remains unclear if significant weapon arsenals were targeted. U.S. officials also claimed the strikes targeted at least one senior Houthi commander, though they offered no details. However, the naval and air strikes also hit residential areas, primarily in Sana’a and the province of Saada.

In response, on Sunday, Yemen’s Houthi-led armed forces said they launched 18 “ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone” at U.S.S. Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea.

The U.S. attacks, which continued into the early hours Sunday, marked one of the largest single-day U.S. strikes on Yemen since October 7, 2023, with an initial toll of 32 people killed and more than 100 injured in what the Houthis said were 47 airstrikes. In Sana’a, early reports indicated that at least 13 people died from the strikes and nine were injured. In Saada province, north of the capital, four children and one woman were reportedly killed and 15 others wounded in attacks that struck two houses. “The majority of them were children and women,” said Anis al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Health Ministry in Sana’a, told Drop Site. Al-Asbahi noted that rescue teams were still pulling victims from the rubble, and the death toll was likely to rise.