United States President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he's ordering a halt to nearly two months of U.S. airstrikes on Yemen's Houthis, saying the Iran-backed rebels have indicated that "they don't want to fight anymore" and have pledged to stop attacking ships along a vital global trade route.
That likely means an abrupt end to a campaign of airstrikes that began in March, when Trump promised to use "overwhelming lethal force" after the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli vessels sailing off Yemen in response to Israel's mounting another blockade on the Gaza Strip.
At the time, they described the warning as affecting the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Arabian Sea.
Trump's announcement came the same day that Israel's military launched airstrikes and fully disabled the international airport in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.
Israel's attacks were its second round of airstrikes on targets in Yemen in retaliation for a Houthi missile strike Sunday on Israel's international airport.
A U.S. official said the administration had not notified Israel of the agreement with the Houthis before Trump's announcement.
Trump said the Houthis had "capitulated but, more importantly, we will take their word that they say they will not be blowing up ships any more. And that's what the purpose of what we were doing," Trump said.
"I think that's very positive," he added. "They were knocking out a lot of ships."
Asked how the Houthis had communicated that they were looking to stop being targeted by U.S. bombs, Trump offered few details, saying only with a chuckle that the information came from a "very good source."
A short time later, Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi confirmed that the U.S. bombing campaign was ending, posting on X that discussions involving the U.S. and Oman, as well as negotiators in Yemen, "have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides."
The costs of the U.S. munitions used against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen in daily attacks since March 15 have totaled more than $750 million, another U.S. official said. The Trump administration has dropped more than 2,000 munitions on more than 1,000 targets, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide additional details on the strikes.
The total is only a fraction of the total costs of the operation. It doesn't account for the costs of operating two aircraft carriers, their accompanying warships or the flight hours of the aircraft.
It also doesn't include the Houthis destroying seven U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones, at a cost of more than $30 million apiece, or the loss of an F/A-18 fighter jet and aircraft tug from the carrier USS Harry S. Truman when it maneuvered to avoid a Houthi missile and both fell off the carrier.