DUBAI: A US airstrike on an important oil port held by Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed more than 70 people and wounded many others, the Iranian-backed rebel group said on Friday, marking a major escalation in the military campaign President Donald Trump launched against the faction last month.
The overnight strike on the Ras Isa port sent massive fireballs billowing skyward and turned tanker trucks into burning wrecks.
It was the first American attack on a Houthi-controlled oil facility in the new US bombing campaign. It also came just before the resumption of negotiations in Rome between the US and Iran over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme, which Washington has linked to its attacks in Yemen.