President Trump said the United States has launched “decisive and powerful” strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen, warning that the military “will use overwhelming lethal force” until the Iran-backed rebels stop their attacks on cargo ships and free up shipping lanes in the regi on.  Trump wrote that the aerial attacks targeted Houthi bases, leaders and missile defense systems to “protect American shipping, air, and naval assets and to restore Navigational Freedom,”  “No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World,” Trump said in a Saturday post on Truth Social.  The attacks were carried out by Air Force attack jets and armed drones that took off from various bases in the region, along with fighter planes from the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, a source familiar with the matter told The Hill.  The source added that this “is not a one-day event. This is the first of many days if not weeks of strikes.”  “The Houthis have choked off shipping in one of the most important Waterways of the World, grinding vast swaths of Global Commerce to a halt, and attacking the core principle of Freedom of Navigation upon which International Trade and Commerce depends,” the president said.  In late January, Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to redesignate Houthis in Yemen as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), pointing to the group's attacks on commercial vessels, U.S. Navy ships and civilian infrastructure in the Middle East.  The Saturday attack also damaged “several” residential buildings in the Sha'ub district, north of Yemen’s capital Sanaa, the Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported.  On Tuesday, the Iran-backed group said it will resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Arabian and Red seas, the Gulf of Aden and Bab al-Mandab Strait, warning that if any vessel breaches the group’s "ban on the passage of all Israeli ships,” it will become a target.  The Houthis will keep it up "until the crossings to the Gaza Strip are reopened and aid, food, and medicine are allowed in.”  Israel paused aid flowing into the war-torn Gaza Strip earlier this month.  Since Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which ignited the war in the region, the Houthis have shot at ships with drones and missiles.  The U.K., U.S. and Israel retaliated against the Houthis several times last year, with the U.S. striking 15 targets in early October last year.   Trump warned the Houthis on Saturday that their attacks on cargo ships have to stop or “HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!”  The Saturday attacks represented the first confirmed U.S. strikes against the Iran-backed group since Trump took office in January.  The commander-in-chief also cautioned Iran, who he told to begin fresh negotiations regarding a new nuclear deal, that Tehran’s support for the Houthis must end “IMMEDIATELY!” “Do NOT threaten the American People, their President, who has received one of the largest mandates in Presidential History, or Worldwide shipping lanes,” Trump said. “If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!”  ...read more read less