US appears to confirm fresh attacks on Yemen
The United States Central Command (Centcom) appears to have confirmed fresh attacks on Yemen, with a video posted to X of fighter jets taking off accompanied by the caption “Give ‘em Hell Harry!!!” in a likely reference to the USS Harry S Truman, an American aircraft carrier stationed near Yemen.
The post came after reports of new US attacks on the northern province of Saada, which reportedly injured at least two people and destroyed a cancer hospital.
The Houthis, an armed movement who have taken control of most of Yemen over the past decade, say they have targeted international shipping in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.
The attacks stopped when a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in January – a day before Donald Trump took office – but earlier this month the Houthis said they would renew attacks against Israeli vessels after Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
On 15 March, the Trump administration launched what it described as a “decisive and powerful” series of deadly airstrikes against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, with the stated aim of deterring the rebel group from attacking Red Sea shipping. Officials say the US strikes have killed many civilians, including women and children.
Key events
Senior Trump administration officials have triggered bipartisan outrage after broadcasting classified military plans through a Signal group chat to which they had inadvertently added a prominent journalist.
According to reporting in the Atlantic, the editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally invited into a Signal chat group with more than a dozen senior Trump administration officials including Vice-President JD Vance, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, national security adviser, Mike Waltz, secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, and others.
My colleague Joseph Gedeon reports on the anger expressed by both Democrats and Republicans over the historic mishandling of national security information. Here is an extract from his story:
On the Senate floor on Monday, the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, called it “one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about in a very, very long time” and urged Republicans to seek a “full investigation into how this happened, the damage it created and how we can avoid it in the future”…
Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic minority leader, called for a “substantive investigation into this unacceptable and irresponsible national security breach”, saying the leak was “completely outrageous and shocks the conscience”.
The Republican senator John Cornyn described the incident more colloquially, telling reporters it was “a huge screw-up” and suggesting that “the interagency would look at that” to determine how such a significant security lapse occurred.
