AFP, Sanaa

Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthis yesterday vowed to meet “escalation with escalation” after a wave of deadly US air strikes, with witnesses to the bombing saying they were taken aback by its intensity, even after years of war.

US President Donald Trump said he had ordered the strikes and threatened more were to come if the rebels kept up their repeated attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Attacks on the rebel-held capital Sanaa, as well as on areas in Saada, Al-Bayda and Radaa, killed at least 31 people and wounded 101, “most of whom were children and women”, Huthi health ministry spokesperson Anis Al-Asbahi said.

An AFP photographer in Sanaa heard explosions and saw plumes of smoke rising Saturday night.

Footage on Huthi media showed children and a woman among those being treated in a hospital emergency room, including a dazed girl with blackened legs wrapped in bandages.

One father of two, who gave his name as Ahmed, told AFP his “house shook, the windows shattered, and my family and I were terrified”.

“I’ve been living in Sanaa for 10 years, hearing shelling throughout the war. By God, I’ve never experienced anything like this before,” he said.

Trump, in a post on social media, vowed to “use overwhelming lethal force” to end the Huthi attacks, which the rebels say are in solidarity with Palestinians amid the Gaza war.

“To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!” he said.

SEE PAGE 6 COL 1