Dubai, United Arab Emirates — U.S. airstrikes targeting the Ras Isa oil port held by Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed 58 people and wounded 126 others, the group said Friday, marking what appeared to be the single-deadliest known attack under President Trump’s new campaign targeting the rebels.
Assessing the toll of Mr. Trump’s campaign, which began March 15, has been incredibly difficult as the U.S. military’s Central Command so far hasn’t released any information on the campaign, its specific targets and how many people have been killed. Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthi rebels strictly control access to areas attacked and don’t publish information on the strikes, many of which likely have targeted military and security sites.
But the strike on the Ras Isa oil port, which sent massive fireballs shooting into the night sky, represented a major escalation of the American campaign. The Houthis also immediately released graphic footage of those killed in the attack.
Al-Masirah TV / Handout via REUTERS 
The war in Yemen, meanwhile, was further internationalized as the U.S. alleged a Chinese satellite company was “directly supporting” Houthi attacks, something Beijing didn’t immediately acknowledge.
The Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel aired graphic footage of the aftermath of the attack on Ras Isa port, showing corpses strewn across the site. It said paramedic and civilians workers at the port had been killed in the attack, which sparked a massive explosion and fires.
Al-Masirah TV / Handout via REUTERS 
In a statement, Central Command said “U.S. forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorize the entire region for over 10 years.”
“This strike was not intended to harm the people of Yemen, who rightly want to throw off the yoke of Houthi subjugation and live peacefully,” it added. It didn’t acknowledge any casualties and declined to comment when asked by The Associated Press regarding civilians reportedly being killed.
The Ras Isa port, a collection of three oil tanks and refining equipment, sits in Yemen’s Hodeida governorate along the Red Sea. NASA satellites that track forest fires showed an intense blaze early Friday morning at the site just off Kamaran Island, targeted by intense U.S. airstrikes over the last few days.
Al-Masirah TV / Handout via REUTERS 
The Ras Isa port also is the terminus of an oil pipeline stretching to Yemen’s energy-rich Marib governorate that’s still held by allies of Yemen’s exiled government. The Houthis expelled that government from Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, back in 2015. However, oil exports have been halted by the decadelong war and the Houthis have used Ras Isa to bring in oil.
The Houthis and Iran denounced the U.S. attack.
“This completely unjustified aggression represents a flagrant violation of Yemen’s sovereignty and independence and a direct targeting of the entire Yemeni people,” the Houthis said in a statement carried by the SABA news agency they control. “It targets a vital civilian facility that has served the Yemeni people for decades.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Tehran “strongly condemned the barbaric U.S. air strike,” calling it “an example of aggressive crime and a blatant violation of the fundamental principles of the U.N. Charter,” according to French news agency AFP.
On April 9, the U.S. State Department issued a warning about oil shipments to Yemen.
“The United States will not tolerate any country or commercial entity providing support to foreign terrorist organizations, such as the Houthis, including offloading ships and provisioning oil at Houthi-controlled ports,” it said.
The attack follows Israeli airstrikes on the Houthis that previously hit port and oil infrastructure used by the rebels after their attacks on Israel.
U.S. says Chinese satellite image provider is aiding Houthis
Meanwhile, U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce in a briefing with journalists accused Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd., a commercial satellite image provider, of “directly supporting Iran-backed Houthi terrorist attacks on U.S. interests.”
Bruce didn’t elaborate in detail, but acknowledged a story by The Financial Times that quoted anonymous American officials saying the firm linked to the People’s Liberation Army has provided images enabling the rebels to target U.S. warships and commercial vessels traveling through the Red Sea corridor.
“Beijing’s support, by the way, of that company, the satellite company, even after we’ve engaged in discussions with them about this … certainly contradicts their claims of being peace supporters,” Bruce said.
Chinese officials and the company, known by the acronym CGSTL, couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. Chinese state media didn’t acknowledge the accusation. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned CGSTL in 2023 for allegedly providing satellite images to the Russian mercenary force the Wagner Group as it fought in Ukraine as part of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
An AP review has found the new U.S. operation against the Houthis under Mr. Trump appears more extensive than the one under former President Joe Biden, as Washington moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel and dropping bombs on cities.
The new campaign of airstrikes started after the rebels threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip as that war grinds on. The rebels have loosely defined what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning many vessels could be targeted.
The Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two and killing four sailors from November 2023 until January of this year. That’s greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it. The Houthis also launched attacks targeting American warships, without success.
The U.S. campaign shows no signs of stopping, as the Trump administration has also linked its airstrikes on the Houthis to an effort to pressure Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program. A second round of negotiations between Iran and the U.S. is due to happen Saturday in Rome.
The stakes of the negotiations couldn’t be higher for the two nations closing in on half a century of enmity. Mr, Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.