Updates: US says it will use ‘overwhelming lethal force’ on Yemen’s Houthis

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For more context on the conflict, read our analysis of where US strikes have targeted the Houthis in Yemen, here.

This live page will soon be closed, here are today’s top updates:

• US President Trump has warned that Iran will be “held responsible” for any further attacks by Yemen’s Houthis.
• Iran’s ambassador to the US expressed his “deep concern and strong condemnation” of the statements, in a letter to the UN Security Council.
• UNICEF has confirmed two children were killed in US strikes in Yemen, despite a US general’s claim that there was “no credible indication of civilian casualties”.
• Lebanon and Syria’s defence ministers have held a call, pledging to coordinate amid deadly border clashes.
• Syrian state media said three people have been killed in an Israeli strike in Deraa.
• Two people were also killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

Al Jazeera’s Inside Story examines the largest and most significant military action since Trump began his second term.

Watch experts weigh in:

• Hassan Ahmadian – professor at the University of Tehran
• Maysaa Shuja Al Deen – senior researcher at Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies
• Colin Clarke – research director at the Soufan Group, a global intelligence and security consultancy

In a post on X, Lebanon’s Defence Ministry said that Minister Michel Menassa had spoken to his Syrian counterpart, Murhaf Abu Qasra.

The pair discussed recent clashes on the Lebanon-Syrian border, which prompted the Lebanese army to deploy to the area. Lebanon’s Health Ministry has said seven people have been killed in the clashes. Syria previously said three of its soldiers had been killed.

“A ceasefire agreement was reached between the two sides,” the statement said.

It added that there would be “continued communication between the Lebanese army intelligence directorate and Syrian intelligence to prevent the deterioration of the situation on the border between the two countries and avoid innocent civilian casualties”.

Al Masirah TV, which is affiliated with the Houthis, has reported more US strikes.

The channel posted a video on Telegram of a fire in Al-Hazm city in the centre of the Al Jawf governorate to the northeast of Sanaa.

The target was a government complex building in Al-Hazm District, Al Masirah TV reported.

A US general said earlier today that the US had struck at least 30 sites in Yemen since Saturday.

He said the operation was ongoing.

Khalil’s arrest for taking part in pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University has been roundly condemned by civil liberties groups, with independent UN experts today decrying the permanent US resident’s “arbitrary detention”.

Khalil’s lawyers have now filed a motion seeking his immediate release so he can be with his wife, who is eight months pregnant. The filing also calls for the judge to bar Trump from invoking an obscure provision of the 1953 Immigration and Nationality Act, which the administration has used to justify efforts to deport Khalil.

“Forcing Mahmoud Khalil – a legal permanent resident who has not been accused of committing a single crime – to remain in detention during the birth of his first child is unconscionable,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.

“The Trump administration has no right to incarcerate Mr Khalil – this is an extreme, retaliatory, and targeted attack on the First Amendment and his right to due process,” she said.

The state news agency has reported that those killed in Israeli strikes on the outskirts of Deraa were civilians.

Israel has said it conducted the strikes on military bases and facilities used by the former government of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.

It has pledged to continue to strike Syrian sites it considers a threat.

The Palestinian news agency has reported that reinforcements have been sent to several neighbourhoods in the city in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli operations in the Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps have displaced thousands of residents in recent weeks.

Wafa reported that Israeli military bulldozers destroyed parts of Nur Shams and that more displacements took place in the Tulkarem camp.

As far as the justification for why the US took the action of striking the Houthis, US officials today didn’t cite any immediate attacks.

Instead, they went back to the Biden administration, with the Pentagon spokesman saying that because Houthis had attacked US ships in the Red Sea 170 times, and then also commercial vessels 145 times, that marked an ongoing threat.

That is why the US military took this action on Saturday, he said.

And then there were also Houthi threats saying that they would resume these strikes if Israel continues to block humanitarian aid from Gaza.

But, certainly, the last time the Houthis struck happened before the Trump administration took office.

The UN children’s fund (UNICEF) has said the organisation has verified that at least two boys, aged six and eight, were killed in US strikes on Saada, Yemen on Saturday.

The post on X came shortly after US Lieutenant General Alexus Grynkewich, the director of operations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters there were “no credible indications of civilian casualties” in the ongoing attacks on Yemen, which he said have so far targeted about 30 sites.

UNICEF said a third child was wounded in the strikes in Saada and the condition of a fourth child had not yet been confirmed.

“UNICEF calls for the protection of children and civilians at all times,” it said.

Iran told the UN Security Council that President Trump and other US officials had made “reckless and provocative statements” that levelled “baseless accusations” and threatened the use of force against Tehran.

“Iran strongly and categorically rejects any accusation on the violation of relevant Security Council resolutions on arms embargoes in Yemen or involvement in any destabilising activities in the region,” Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani wrote in a letter seen by the Reuters news agency.

Earlier on Monday, Trump said he would hold Iran directly responsible for any future attacks by Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthis, who have targeted US and other foreign ships in the Red Sea.

Just hours after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Israel started to bomb Syria – north, east, south, central and the coastal regions of Syria.

This is an Israeli strategy to reduce the country’s military capacity – particularly the air defence capacity.

And now Israel is moving further, saying it does not want any Syrian military presence in the south of Syria.

And, of course, for the new government in Damascus, that is a huge challenge. Practically, that means it would not be in control of the southern cities of Syria, namely Quneitra, Sweida and Deraa.

So that’s why we’re seeing that almost on a daily basis Israel is conducting air strikes. Until now, there have been up to 1,000 Israeli air strikes [on Syria since the fall of al-Assad], significantly reducing the air defence capacity of Syria.

And many officials here say this is making the new administration extremely vulnerable and almost leaving it without any protection against foreign aggression.

Here are the most recent updates:

• US President Donald Trump says Iran will “suffer the consequences” of any further Houthi attacks.
• The UN voices concern over US attacks on Yemen and retaliatory Houthi strikes in the Red Sea.
• Two people reportedly have been killed in Israeli strikes on Syria and two others by Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.
• Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least seven people have been killed in clashes along the country’s border with Syria, where the Lebanese military has been deployed.
• A group of independent UN rights experts has condemned the “arbitrary detention” of US permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil over pro-Palestine protests.

The US has attacked the Houthis in Yemen and says more strikes are coming. Washington has also warned Iran over its support for the group.

In an already volatile region, what will be the implications of these strikes?

And how might shipping be affected in the Red Sea?

• US Lieutenant General Alexus Grynkewich said at least 30 sites in Yemen had been struck.
• The strikes targeted senior members of the Houthis’ drone programme.
• Grynkewich said that dozens of Houthi fighters were believed to have been killed, adding that Washington had not yet assessed that civilians had been killed.
• He said the US military was striking a “much broader set of targets” than under the administration of former US President Joe Biden.
• US spokesman Sean Parnell denied the attacks represented an “endless offensive”, but said the strikes would only stop when the Houthis “pledge to stop putting American lives at risk”.

The Lebanese Health Ministry says at least seven people have been killed in fighting on the border with Syria since the violence began again on Sunday night. Another 52 have been wounded.

Lebanese President Aoun has sent the army to respond after several skirmishes over the weekend, in which three Syrian soldiers were killed in separate incidents.

The interim government in Syria has blamed the fighting on Hezbollah although the group has denied the claim.

The military says its targets have included military headquarters containing weapons and military equipment that had been controlled by ousted Syrian leader al-Assad.

As it said earlier this month after similar strikes, the military said the sites “constitute a threat to the state of Israel” and Israel will continue to act against such threats.

Syria’s state news agency earlier reported Israel had struck locations in the southern province of Deraa. It reported that two people had been killed and 19 wounded in the Israeli strikes.

The latest statement comes after Lebanese authorities confirmed two people had been killed in an Israeli strike in Yohmor.

Several more strikes have since been reported across the region, although the Israeli military did not give a location of the latest attacks. It said it had struck “military sites of the terrorist organisation Hezbollah”.

The military “will continue to act to remove any threat to the states of Israel and prevent any attempt to restore and consolidate the terrorist organisation Hezbollah”, it added.

US campuses including Columbia University in New York were rocked by student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, drawing accusations of anti-Semitism.

Immigration officers arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of protests at Columbia, on the weekend of March 9-10 after US President Donald Trump pledged to deport foreign pro-Palestinian student demonstrators.

The White House later said authorities had supplied a list of other Columbia students who officers were seeking to deport over their alleged participation in protests.

“These actions are disproportionate, unnecessary, and discriminatory and will only lead to more trauma and polarisation negatively impacting the learning environment within university campuses,” a group of United Nations-appointed experts said in a statement.

“These actions create a chilling effect on the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association,” they added.

The independent experts, appointed by the UN to report on rights issues, urged US authorities “to cease repression and retaliation, including in the form of arbitrary detention of US lawful permanent residents, and removal of international students who have participated in university protests”.