Evening Edition: The United States Steps Up Attacks On Houthi Terrorists
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I'm Charlie Hurt. I'm Ainsley Earhart. I'm Charles Payne, and this is the Fox News Rundown. Monday, March 17th, 2025. I'm Eben Brown. A reckoning for the Houthis, the Islamist outfit ruling much of Yemen, infamous for attacking U.S. ships without much repercussion. They are terrorists. They are pirates.

And it is time that they knock this off in the Red Sea. Also, they are a front for Iran and increasingly a front for Russia. This is the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. ♪

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U.S. forces have been striking and striking and striking targets in Yemen, controlled by the jihadist syndicate known as Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthi rebels. Statements from President Trump say this is in response to the Houthis' persistent targeting of both U.S. naval vessels as well as commercial shipping in the Red Sea, which is considered to be international waters.

and that while the previous administration under President Biden often opted for limited tit-for-tat, the Trump administration would seek to overwhelm, and that the case for doing so is in the interests of both American foreign policy and trade policy. Finally, the Trump administration is striking back.

Dr. Rebecca Grant is a former Pentagon advisor and now a senior fellow at the Lexington Institute. I'm so glad to see these attacks against some of the key Houthi leadership and also their command and control forces.

and weapons sites and storage that they've been using. And finally, it's time to do this because, you know, the Houthis have knocked down two of our Reaper drones right at the end of last year. They've launched 174 attacks against U.S. Navy ships, and that's before this, and about 140 attacks against commercial vessels. They do not hit Chinese or Russian vessels.

And they are terrorists, they are pirates, and it is time that they knock this off in the Red Sea. Also, they are a front for Iran and increasingly a front for Russia, who has been helping them with weapons and some technology advice. So we are fighting.

really a very serious maritime engagement here in the Red Sea with the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force and our allies standing up against a group that is sponsored by Iran, Russia and China. I think the Iranian connection is well known at this point. The Russian connection you're talking about may not be so well known. Is it normally in Russia's

you know, standard playbook here to associate with terrorists like this. It seems a little out of the ordinary, but maybe I'm wrong. Well, Russia is pushing this axis of resistance and Treasury Secretary Besant just a couple of weeks ago designated some hooties on a sanctioned entities list.

This was directly because of arms smuggling and procurement of weapons from Russia to the Houthis. There had been rumors about Russian support for the Houthis really for quite some time, at least all through last year. But this Treasury Department designation makes it real clear that the Russians are helping out.

We know that there's Russian intelligence functioning down in Yemen. And there are even some scattered reports that Russia may be helping Iran and helping the Houthis to do some of the more advanced targeting against U.S. warships and U.S. drones. So we see a connection again now between Iran.

American and Russian interactions as well as the boiling pot of the Middle East. I mean, this doesn't feel good when we talk about avoiding a World War III if we're linking all of this together.

Well, I think it's actually good for Putin to see with the USS Harry S. Truman there in the center of it all, to see what American military power really does look like. And I think it comes at a good moment, even with the possibility of negotiations over a Ukraine ceasefire. What the Houthis have done makes these strikes very well warranted. But I'm glad to see the U.S. Navy with a whole strike group there and the U.S. Air Force from their land bases working

really using precision firepower against the Houthis and sending that message back to Iran and back to Russia as well.

Let's talk about the strikes themselves. These were pretty powerful. There have been a lot of videos circulating the regular channels. It seemed pretty ferocious. This is a lot different than what the previous administration, the Biden administration, would do. And that was use a million dollar missile to strike down a hundred thousand dollar drone. I mean, that was certainly an imbalance in the economics of the fight.

This really looked like a lot more than just a single strike, obviously. This was rather powerful. This is a well-planned campaign to go after some of the Houthi leadership and tactical command and control. And you've seen strikes taking place really across several different regions of Yemen. That is an attempt to target some of the Houthi leadership as well. You know, don't forget,

Israel launched four different waves of strikes over the latter part of 2024. A lot of those targeting the port there around Sanaa, but this has gone a step further. We'd also seen the US Navy and Air Force earlier in 2024 go after some of the storage sites. And of course the B-2 bomber hit some big weapons storage sites.

But this has been a very well planned campaign. The U.S. Central Command really took time to collect intelligence on the key targets. They're also looking at some of the resupply routes and then trying to get at the types of forces that have been trying to target our unmanned aircraft and to launch

weapons against our ships in the Red Sea. Very careful campaign. But I'll tell you this, there is no doubt Central Command has plenty of forces left and plenty of targets. If the Houthis don't knock it off, the U.S. Navy and Air Force can continue this campaign for quite some time. Our guest is Dr. Rebecca Grant of the Lexington Institute, former Pentagon advisor, speaking about this weekend's airstrikes on the Houthis of Yemen on the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. We'll have more straight ahead.

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You mentioned not just the attacks on the U.S. Navy, but attacks against commercial shipping. A lot of that is U.S. commercial shipping. We're talking about international waters, right? They shouldn't have a legal right, the Houthis at least, and certainly not the proper Yemen government, to stop shipping through the Red Sea. They claim they're only going to stop Israeli-aligned shipping, but that's obviously not true.

there's no legal right for them to stop anyone from transiting, correct?

There's no legal right for the Houthis to do this at all. That's correct. And the Houthis themselves have made it very clear they are doing this tied into operations in Gaza. They had actually stopped for a little while during the Gaza ceasefire, but decided on their own initiative to restart these attacks several days ago. What a stupid mistake. And there's no justification for launching live ordnance into a massive crowded shipping lane.

How long would it take, do you think, before...

The commercial shipping companies would feel comfortable going through there again. And we know that they have had to transit around the Horn of Africa to try to avoid this part of the world. And that's not necessarily any safer either, but it's certainly more expensive. And that comes to a cost of, again, American business. And that kind of aligns with President Trump and his desire to really protect American commerce.

Right. Well, the first thing that the commercial shippers want to see is no attacks against U.S. warships. There was a very ineffective missile, cruise missile and drone attack launched towards the USS Harrah history, but I don't think they were very precise. And this was all shot down or went off course.

The commercial shippers plan ahead. So the first thing we'll see is a cessation of attacks, and then it would take a couple months for the commercial shippers to decide to reroute. They are on a very time-sensitive, tightly controlled schedule, and they won't put the Red Sea back into their schedule until they're sure that the coast is clear. I'd expect a

First thing we'd see is perhaps some statements from Central Command telling us that they've accomplished a lot of their objectives. And then we want to see no more drones and missiles flying and no more resupply from what Treasury Secretary Besant called an array of international sources, maybe even including arms dealer Victor Boot. Everybody's selling weapons to these Houthis, and these strikes are designed to put a lid on that.

Yeah, Victor Boot is almost like this arch-terrorist weapons dealer who kind of looks like he's right out of a spy movie. And the United States released him in exchange for the return of Brittany Griner from the Russians, the WNBA player. So I think it demonstrates that there are...

there's a ripple effect when we make those types of deals. And in this case, it involves Victor boot. I want to ask you one other thing here. Um, the president, president Trump has framed this as, as an American interest that, uh, the U S, uh, Navy vessels have been attacked. The U S shipping vessels have been attacked. This is the United States, uh, stepping in and doing what it has to do to protect those interests. Um,

But it's no secret. This is helpful to Israel in its war against terrorists, of which the Houthis have been involved. How does this help the Israelis? It's more than just moral support.

Well, President Trump has made clear he stands with Israel. And there have been, by Israel's account, about 400 strikes by the Houthis targeted towards Israel. So this is a legitimate defense of Israel.

Israel. In the big picture here also, this is about President Trump showing that the U.S. wants to maintain this freedom of navigation and that the combined efforts of Russia and Iran, with a little help from China, aren't going to push

the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force out of the Red Sea. We've got to make to draw that line somewhere. And I'm glad President Trump has authorized these strikes. It's perfectly legitimate against legitimate military targets. And we just can't have the hooties closing down one region of the world. Dr. Rebecca Grant, former Pentagon advisor and now senior fellow at the Lexington Institute. Thank you so much for being with us on the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. Thank you.

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