A US airstrike on a vital oil port held by Yemen's Houthi rebels has killed more than 70 people and wounded many others, the Iranian-backed rebel group announced yesterday.
Marking a major escalation in the military campaign launched by President Donald Trump last month, it is the deadliest known attack so far.
The overnight strike on the Ras Isa port, which reportedly killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others, sent massive fireballs billowing skyward and turned tanker trucks into burning wrecks.
Acting as 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 program, which Washington has linked to its attacks in Yemen.
The US is targeting the Houthis because of the group's attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route, and on Israel.
Just last month, Trump ordered large-scale strike attacks by the US on areas controlled by the Houthis after redesignating the Houthis as a 'Foreign Terrorist Organisation'.
The Houthis are the last militant group in Iran's self-described 'Axis of Resistance' that is capable of regularly attacking Israel.
The overnight strike on the Ras Isa port (pictured), which reportedly killed at least 74 people and wo...
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