U.S. Central Command struck a Houthi fuel port in what Middle East experts are calling an escalation of U.S. strikes on the Yemen-based group.
CENTCOM announced the strikes on Ras Isa fuel port Thursday afternoon. While U.S. struck Houthi infrastructure under both the Biden and Trump administrations, it is the first time CENTCOM said it struck a fuel port. It is not clear if the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, which is in the Red Sea, or the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group, which is in the Gulf of Oman, were involved in the strikes.
The Navy did not confirm if the strikes were carried out by assets in the region, however the USS Harry S. Truman’s X feed posted the “muscle” emoji in reference to a CENTCOM statement on the strike mission. A NAvy official this week told USNI News that almost all of the strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen have originated with the Truman CSG.
— USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) (@USSHARRYSTRUMAN) April 17, 2025
“The objective of these strikes was to degrade the economic source of power of the Houthis, who continue to exploit and bring great pain upon their fellow countrymen,” reads the CENTCOM release. “This strike was not intended to harm the people of Yemen, who rightly want to throw off the yoke of Houthi subjugation and live peacefully.”
The strike on the fuel port was not surprising because the U.S. had already re-designated the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and put sanctions on them that began April 5, Houthi expert Mohammed Albasha, founder of Basha Report LLC, which reports on Yemen, told USNI News. However, tankers, including ones linked to Iran and Russia, still offloaded fuel at the port.
“Today’s move, following the earlier sanctioning of the International Bank of Yemen (IBY), is a clear escalation,” Albasha said. “It signals that not only will Houthi military assets, leadership, and equipment be targeted—but so too will their revenue streams.”
Nadwa Dawsari, an associate fellow with the Middle East Institute, also called the strikes a “major escalation” in a post on social media site X.
“Fuel is essential to Houthis’s war economy: it powers transport, smuggling, military ops, & is key sources of [black] market revenues for the group,” Dawsari wrote.
