The US says the attack on the Red Sea coast aimed to restrict supplies and funds for the Houthis, who called it a war crime.

U.S. forces on Thursday hit a major fuel port in western Yemen used to supply Houthi rebels, the first such airstrike publicly announced since Washington began an air campaign against the militant

The Houthis, if anything, may actually be relishing US strikes. They are a “direct answer to the Houthi prayers to have a war with the US,” said Farea Al-Muslimi, a Yemeni research fellow at Chatham House. The group “wants to drag the US into a larger regional escalation.”