Turkiye protesters fill streets, defying crackdown

SANAA: Yemen’s Houthi militants said fresh US air strikes on Wednesday killed one person in Hodeida province, after overnight air raids left four people dead in the same area.
Anees Alasbahi, spokesman for the Houthis’ health ministry, reported “one civilian martyr and one wounded” in the Red Sea port of Ras Issa, saying they were “victims of the US enemy’s air force.”
Houthi-controlled media said strikes hit Ras Issa as well as the Iran-backed group’s northern stronghold of Saada.
Earlier on Wednesday the Houthis said overnight air strikes on Hodeida province killed four, in an attack also blamed on the United States.
The United States, which has carried out major raids in Yemen in recent weeks, has not confirmed it was behind the latest strikes.
Houthi media said the targets of the overnight strikes included water infrastructure in Hodeida and areas of the northwestern region of Hajjah.
US President Donald Trump has vowed that attacks on Yemen’s Houthis would continue until they are no longer a threat to shipping.
Early Wednesday, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group targeted US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman for “the third time in 24 hours.”
His statement came just as Washington said it was increasing the number of aircraft carriers deployed in the Middle East to two, keeping the Truman and sending another from the Indo-Pacific.
The Carl Vinson would join the Truman “to continue promoting regional stability, deter aggression, and protect the free flow of commerce in the region,” said Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.
Houthi-held parts of Yemen have witnessed near-daily attacks blamed on the United States since Washington launched a campaign against the rebels on March 15 to force them to stop threatening vessels in key maritime routes.
Since then, the Houthis have also claimed attacks targeting US military ships and Israel.
On Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the campaign of “over 200 successful strikes against the Houthis” had been effective.
The rebels had targeted passing ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as well as Israeli territory, from shortly after the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023 until a January ceasefire, claiming to act in solidarity with Palestinians.
Renewed US strikes followed Houthi threats to resume attacks on vessels over Israel’s aid blockade on Gaza and attacks on the Palestinian territory after truce talks stalled.
The Houthi attacks had crippled the vital Red Sea route, which normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic, forcing many companies into a detour around the tip of southern Africa.

UNITED NATIONS: The mass grave in Rafah where the bodies of 15 medics were found after the Israeli army fired on ambulances illustrates the “war without limits” that Israel is leading in Gaza, a UN aid official said Wednesday.
“It was shocking” to see medical workers “still in their uniforms, still wearing gloves, killed while trying to save lives,” said Jonathan Whittall, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Palestinian territories.
“The ambulances were hit one by one,” he said in a video conference after a mission to Gaza uncovered the mass grave. Of the 15 bodies, eight were members of the Palestinian Red Crescent and one was from the United Nations.
UN chief Antonio Guterres also expressed revulsion Wednesday at the killings.
“The secretary-general is shocked by the attacks of the Israeli army on a medical and emergency convoy on March 23 resulting in the killings of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian workers in Gaza,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a briefing.
OCHA said Tuesday that the first team of first aid workers was killed by Israeli forces on March 23, and that other emergency and aid teams were hit one after another over several hours while searching for their missing colleagues.
After several weeks of ceasefire in Gaza, Israel resumed its bombardments on March 18 and announced Wednesday the extension of its military operations to seize “large areas” of the territory.
Whittall said 64 percent of Gaza is under displacement orders, and that 200,000 people have been uprooted since the end of the ceasefire.
He said the 25 bakeries run by the UN’s World Food Programme have been closed since Tuesday.
“It’s an endless loop of blood, pain, death and Gaza has become a death trap,” he said. “What is happening here defies decency, it defies humanity, it defies the law.”