By Roya Pour Bagher
The footage showed a group of people in a huddle before they were obliterated. The caption accompanying the video left no room for doubt about Trump’s excitement.
"Oops, there will be no attack by these Houthis. They will never sink our ships again!"
The megalomaniac American president, known for his eccentricity and foolhardiness, claimed that the individuals targeted in the strike were plotting an attack on American vessels in the Red Sea.
However, the claim was soon debunked by Yemeni officials, who confirmed that the victims were, in fact, not combatants but tribesmen who had gathered to celebrate the festival of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
They had come together to celebrate after observing month-long fasting—only to be murdered in cold blood. The event of celebration turned into mourning for several families, turning their world upside-down.
Anyone who takes the time to scrutinize the video can conclude that a community event was underway due to the presence of cameras and people being interviewed.
US government officials, including Trump, refused to acknowledge the blatant violation of international law. They rather celebrated it, like Defense Secretary Hegseth, who shared the video. This leaves observers with two possible scenarios: faulty US intelligence or a long-accustomed American reliance on public naivety—the latter being more likely.
This is certainly not the first display of such reckless American penchant for murder in the poorest Arab country. On March 15, 2025, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine was accidentally added to a Signal chat group for U officials that disclosed critical information regarding an imminent military operation against Yemen just hours before the attack took place.
Members of the chat included US National Security Adviser Michael Waltz as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, amongst others.
According to Jeffrey Goldberg, the Hegseth message held operation details of that day’s attacks on Yemen, including targets and individuals to be hit and weapons to be used.
Comments like “Amazing job,” and “A good start,” flooded the chat after the strikes were conducted. Moreover, a report indicates the officials celebrated at a $1-million-per-seat dinner shortly afterwards.
But, what exactly was this “amazing job?” It included strikes that continued until the next day on residential neighborhoods in the capital, Sana'a, the city of Sa’ada, and other regions across the country.
The media reported more than 47 air raids targeting at least seven provinces across the country. The Yemeni Health Ministry announced on Sunday that more than 50 people were killed, including women and children, and nearly 100 others were injured.
Reports also included targeting a cancer institute, constituting a blatant war crime.
Again, one can simply watch the scenes that came out on that weekend to confirm that innocent children were victims of the attack, as they can be seen placed on stretchers and rushed into hospitals.
The US government claims that it is carrying out these attacks in Yemen to protect American shipping, naval assets, and navigational freedom. Conveniently—and as usual—the American administration leaves out facts that expose its imperialistic nature.
For argument’s sake, let us assume American attacks are a means of “protecting innocent lives.” Why does the US strike Yemen indiscriminately, killing innocent civilians, including women and children?
Unlike the US, the Yemeni Armed Forces do not attack the ships in the Red Sea indiscriminately. Their targets are solely vessels headed to the occupied Palestinian territories—operations they started after the regime launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023 and resumed it after the regime refused to proceed with the ceasefire agreement and denied entry of aid into the besieged territory.
Even the resumption of its anti-Israel operations in the Red Sea did not come suddenly but followed an ultimatum given to the regime to reopen crossings to Gaza and allow the entry of aid, food, and medicine.
These strikes are all part of a systematic pattern of US aggression against Yemen that began in 2002, another piece of background information the Western mainstream media conveniently leaves out every time.
Under every US president since then, there have been devastating strikes on Yemen. The largest number of strikes were under Donald Trump, followed by Barack Obama—the very president who won a Nobel Peace Prize.
Since 2015, the US openly supported Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the two primary aggressors against Yemen, which spawned the worst humanitarian crises in the country.
At least $54.6 billion worth of military support was reported from 2015 to 2021, including sales of missiles, helicopters, and bombs. The aggression during that period led to an estimated death toll of over 337,000 people, with over 16 million on the brink of famine.
The United Nations Development Programme also estimated back then that 70 percent of those killed would be children under the age of five.
Back then, Washington was violating international law by striking Yemen and funding the Saudi-led coalition’s aggressions. Now, too, it continues its violations—not just in Yemen but also in Palestine and Lebanon by supplying the Israeli regime with weapons being used to commit war crimes.
The same playbook is used in Palestine and Lebanon, as US support for the Israeli regime continues under the guise of security interests. Billions flow to Tel Aviv as it commits genocide in Gaza and Lebanon.
The unifying theme? An incessant, ruthless determination to control and destabilize West Asia, regardless of the human cost. Civilians who live in the region are mere disposable statistics to the West. So long as their interests are secured, there is “peace.”
The irony keeps growing as American conduct towards Yemen is examined more deeply. Western mainstream media has always painted the Yemeni “Houthis”—a deliberate designation and one regarded by the Ansarullah resistance movement as wrong and a pretext to target 80 percent of the Yemenis living under the then National Salvation Government in Sanaa—as “thugs” and “terrorists.”
This, it has done, to justify decades-long military aggression for the sake of hegemony that rests on dominating the “Gulf of Aden”—one of the world’s key waterways. However, this rhetoric often serves as a smokescreen for the atrocities committed by the US itself.
The principle of “every accusation is an admission” rings painfully true here. While accusing the Ansarullah—an honorable political and resistance movement in Yemen that opposes Western meddling in West Asia—of indiscriminate violence and terrorism, the US military has carried out drone strikes and air raids that have obliterated weddings, funerals, safe zones, etc.
These actions, which are celebrated as indicated by a multitude of evidence, reveal a chilling disregard for human life that far surpasses the accusations leveled against the Ansarullah movement.
This projection of terrorism onto the Yemenis not only dehumanizes them but also deflects the attention from the systematic inhumanity of US policies.
By framing its actions in West Asia as a fight against terrorism, Washington seeks to mask its true face: the perpetrator of terrorism—leaving behind trails of death and destruction that are louder than its propaganda, slowly but surely reaching the world.
But the question remains: What will it take for Western powers to be held accountable for their horrendous war crimes?
Roya Pour Bagher is a Tehran-based writer.
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