Deadliest US strike in Yemen kills 74 at oil terminal, Houthis say

ADEN/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. strikes on Yemen's Ras Isa fuel terminal on the Red Sea coast have killed at least 74 people in the deadliest attack since the U.S. started its bombing campaign against the Houthis last year, according to the Houthi-run health ministry.

U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the intensification of strikes last month in the biggest U.S. military operation in the Middle East since he took office in January. Washington has vowed to keep attacking the Iran-aligned Houthis until the group halts attacks on Red Sea shipping.

Health ministry spokesperson Anees al-Asbahi said 171 people were injured in Thursday's strikes, according to preliminary figures, with rescue teams continuing efforts to search for victims.

The U.S. military said the strikes aimed to cut off a source of fuel for the Houthi militant group. The port has a heavy military presence in addition to being a primary hub for fuel imports, Yemeni sources said.

Among the dead were employees of Safer Oil Company, which operates the port, and the Yemen Petroleum Company, responsible for overseeing imported fuel shipments and their distribution, the sources added.

U.S. Central Command did not comment on the health ministry's casualty figure.

"The objective of these strikes was to degrade the economic source of power of the Houthis, who continue to exploit and bring great pain upon their fellow countrymen," it had said in a post on X.

The U.S. and Israel have previously targeted the port, viewing it as a hub for launching drones, missiles, and attacks on ships.

The Iran-aligned Houthis have taken control of swathes of Yemen over the past decade. Since November 2023, the group has launched dozens of drone and missile attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, saying they were targeting ships linked to Israel in solidarity with Palestinians over the war in Gaza.

Ras Isa terminal, about which is about 55 km (35 miles) north of the port city of Hodeidah, has a storage capacity of 3 million barrels.

Fuel import taxes bring in hundreds of millions of dollars annually for the Houthi administration, sources said.

The Houthis halted attacks on shipping lanes during a two-month ceasefire in Gaza. Although they vowed to resume strikes after Israel renewed its assault on the enclave last month, they have not struck targets in the Red Sea since then.

In March, two days of U.S. attacks killed more than 50 people, Houthi officials said.

(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari, Ismail Shakil, Sarah Morland, Hatem Maher, Jana Choukeir; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Ros Russell)