Houthi health ministry says U.S. strike on Ras Isa port killed 74
Event date: 2025-04-18
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said a U.S. airstrike on the Ras Isa oil port killed 74 people and wounded 171, making it the deadliest known attack in President Donald Trump’s new campaign against the group, AP reported.
The strike hit an important fuel hub controlled by the Houthis and sent fireballs into the night sky. AP said the port is a major entry point for fuel shipments that sustain areas under Houthi control, which is why analysts warned the attack could affect daily life far beyond the immediate blast site.
The Houthis responded by airing graphic footage of the aftermath, including burning tanker trucks and bodies strewn across the port. The rebel-run health ministry said the dead and wounded included port workers and others present when the strike hit. U.S. Central Command declined to address possible civilian casualties and said only that the strike was not intended to harm Yemenis.
The attack is significant for two reasons. First, it was the first U.S. strike in the new campaign to target a Houthi-controlled oil facility. Second, AP said it came just before negotiations in Rome between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program, negotiations Washington has linked to the Yemen campaign.
The Houthis have been attacking shipping in the Red Sea and targeting Israel, and the United States says it is responding to those attacks. The rebels are also the last armed group in Iran’s self-described Axis of Resistance capable of regularly striking Israel. That regional context gives the port strike a wider significance than the casualty count alone.
The group’s own messaging emphasized the civilian nature of the facility, describing Ras Isa as a vital site that had served Yemenis for decades. That framing is part of the broader information war around the conflict: the Houthis seek to portray the strike as indiscriminate, while Washington says its actions are aimed at military pressure, not civilians.
AP’s report also noted Houthi claims that they had shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone and that thousands of supporters marched in Sanaa in protest. Those claims fit the wider pattern of the group using both battlefield announcements and public rallies to reinforce its narrative during the U.S. campaign.
Even without independent casualty confirmation, the scale of the rebel-reported losses is substantial and the strike marks a sharp escalation. It demonstrates how attacks on energy infrastructure can produce mass casualties while also threatening the supply chains on which already war-weary civilian populations depend.
