Trump administration targets Houthi drone experts, C2 arsenal in first wave of ongoing strikes

Dozens of Houthi targets — including drone facilities and technology experts — were hit this weekend in Yemen during the first surge of the U.S. military’s latest, ongoing campaign against the Iran-backed militia group behind major global shipping disruptions, senior officials told reporters Monday. 

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell and Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, director of operations at the Joint Staff, supplied new details about those airstrikes and the broader operational vision at the Defense Department’s first on-camera press briefing under the new Trump administration. 

“The initial wave of strikes hit over 30 targets at multiple locations, degrading a variety of Houthi capabilities. These included terrorist training sites, unmanned aerial vehicle infrastructure, weapons manufacturing capabilities and weapon storage facilities. It also included a number of command-and-control centers, including a terrorist compound where we know several senior unmanned aerial vehicle experts were located,” Grynkewich said.

“On Sunday, strike operations continued against additional headquarters locations, weapon storage facilities, as well as detection capabilities that have been used to threaten maritime shipping in the past,” he noted. 

Officials emphasized that this operation will continue into the coming days and until President Donald Trump’s demands are met. They didn’t explicitly clarify all of the commander-in-chief’s expectations, but Parnell suggested that they’d begin with a pledge from the Houthis to stop all attacks against American ships. 

“We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective. With that said, and this is a very important point, this is also not an endless offensive. This is not about regime change in the Middle East — this is about putting American interests first,” Parnell said. 

A series of Houthi-led UAV and missile attacks against military and commercial ships intensified in and around the Red Sea under the Biden administration, partially as a response to America’s support for Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

According to Parnell, the Houthis have launched one-way attack drones and missiles at U.S. warships more than 170 times, and at commercial vessels around 145 times, since 2023.

In response to reporters’ questions, the official did not specify what provoked this new wave of strikes. However, Grynkewich said that the U.S. is able to take action against a “much broader set of targets” due to support from Trump.    

“The other key differences are the delegation of authorities from the president through [Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth] down to the operational commander. So, that allows us to achieve a tempo of operations where we can react to opportunities that we see on the battlefield in order to continue to put pressure on the Houthis,” Grynkewich noted.

The military is conducting battle damage assessments.

In terms of early estimates, Grynkewich suggested there were “dozens of military casualties so far” in this series of attacks — and despite the Houthis’ accusations, he said he’s seen no credible indications that any civilians were killed.

“There was an unmanned aerial vehicle facility that was struck with several key leaders. Those are key individuals who led their unmanned aerial vehicle enterprise and were some of the technical experts in there. So think of those types of individuals that we might be targeting as part of the command and control,” he said.

“We have destroyed command-and-control facilities, weapons manufacturing facilities and advanced weapons storage locations. But again, this campaign is ongoing. It’s difficult to talk about all this stuff from the [Pentagon briefing room] podium, and we’re not going to say anything from the podium until we’re sure that we have it right,” Parnell added.

The officials declined to share whether the U.S. is looking at plans to send ground troops to Yemen or the surrounding areas at this time, or to go after targets associated with Iran.

“I certainly don’t want to get out in front of the commander-in-chief and the secretary as it pertains to clearance of strikes and who we’ll be targeting. But I think the president’s made very clear that all options are on the table,” Parnell told reporters.