US says blast near Yemen UNESCO world heritage site caused by Houthi missile

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Thursday a blast on Sunday near a UNESCO world heritage site in Yemen's capital city of Sanaa was caused by a Houthi missile and not an American airstrike.

The Houthi-run health ministry said a dozen people were killed in the U.S. strike in a neighborhood of Sanaa. The Old City of Sanaa is a recognized UNESCO World Heritage Site.

President Donald Trump ordered the intensification of U.S. strikes on Yemen last month, with his administration saying they will continue assaulting Iran-backed Houthi rebels until they stop attacking Red Sea shipping.

A U.S. Central Command spokesperson said the damage and casualties described by Yemen's Houthi officials "likely did occur" but they were not caused by a U.S. attack. The closest U.S. strike that night was more than three miles (5 km) away, the spokesperson said.

The U.S. military assessed that the damage was caused by a "Houthi air defense missile" based on a review of "local reporting, including videos documenting Arabic writing on the missile's fragments at the market," the spokesperson said, adding the Houthis subsequently arrested Yemenis. He did not provide evidence.

A Houthi official was quoted by the New York Times as saying the American denial was an attempt to smear the Houthis.

Recent U.S. strikes have killed dozens, including 74 at an oil terminal on Thursday in what was the deadliest strike in Yemen under Trump so far, according to the local health ministry.

The U.S. military says the strikes aim to cut off the Houthi militant group's military and economic capabilities.

Rights advocates have raised concerns about civilian killings and three Democratic senators, including Senator Chris Van Hollen, wrote to Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on Thursday demanding accounting for loss of civilian lives.

The Houthis have taken control of swathes of Yemen over the past decade.

Since November 2023, they have launched drone and missile attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, saying they were targeting ships linked to Israel.

They say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza where Israel's war has killed has killed over 51,000, according to Gaza's health ministry, and led to genocide and war crimes accusations that Israel denies.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israel.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington, Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)