Israel’s military says it has carried out airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen’s Red Sea city of Hodeida, a day after the Iranian-backed rebels launched a missile that hit Israel’s main airport

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Monday that it carried out airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen’s Red Sea city of Hodeida, a day after the Iranian-backed rebels launched a missile that hit Israel’s main airport.

The rebels’ media office said the United States and Israel launched at least six strikes Monday afternoon that hit the crucial Hodeida port. Other strikes hit a cement factory in the Bajil district in Hodeida province, the rebels said.

On Sunday, a missile launched by Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at Israel’s main international airport. Four people were lightly injured. It was the first time a missile struck the grounds of Israel’s airport since the start of the war.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran finally extinguished a fire Monday at a southern port rocked by an explosion as the death toll in the blast rose to at least 65 people killed, authorities said.

Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press also showed the devastation of the explosion that injured more than 1,000 people. The photos from Planet Labs PBC came as local news reports from the site raised more questions about the cause of the blast Saturday at the Shahid Rajaei port near Bandar Abbas.

Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni announced the fire had been put out, while Hormozgan Gov. Mohammad Ashouri Taziani gave the death toll.

The port reportedly took in a chemical component needed for solid fuel for ballistic missiles — something denied by authorities though they’ve not explained the source of the power that caused such destruction.

The blast Saturday disintegrated a building next to the blast site, which appeared to be in a row where other containers once stood, the satellite photos showed. It also shredded the majority of another building just to the west.

The force of the blast also could be seen, with what appeared to be two craters measure some 50 meters (165 feet) across. Other containers nearby appeared smashed and distended by the explosion and the intense fire that followed.

The fire still burned at the site Monday, some two days after the initial explosion that happened just as Iran began a third round of negotiations with the United States over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.

Authorities still haven’t offered an explanation for the explosion.

Private security firm Ambrey says the port received missile fuel chemical in March. It was part of a shipment of ammonium perchlorate from China by two vessels to Iran, first reported in January by the Financial Times. The chemical used to make solid propellant for rockets was going to be used to replenish Iran’s missile stocks, which had been depleted by its direct attacks on Israel during the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The Iranian military denied receiving the chemical shipment.

Social media footage of the explosion saw reddish-hued smoke rising from the fire just before the detonation. That suggests a chemical compound being involved in the blast, like in the 2020 Beirut port explosion.

Late Sunday, Iran’s semiofficial ILNA news agency quoted Saeed Jafari, the CEO of marine services company working at the port, as saying there were false statements about the cargo that detonated, which he called “very dangerous.”

“The incident happened following a false statement about the dangerous goods and delivering it without documents and tags,” Jafari said.

Another report by the semiofficial ISNA news agency claimed the cargo that caused the blast was not reported to customs authorities as well.

Only high-level authorities in Iran, such as its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, could circumvent normal procedures at the port.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. airstrikes targeting Yemen’s capital killed at least eight people overnight, the Houthi rebels said Monday, as the American military acknowledged carrying out over 800 individual strikes in their monthlong campaign.

The overnight statement from the U.S. military’s Central Command also said its “Operation Roughrider” targeting the rebels had “killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders,” including those associated with its missile and drone program. It did not identify any of those officials.

The U.S. insisted it would continue to carry out its airstrikes, which began March 15 under President Donald Trump as he seeks a deal with Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.

“Iran undoubtedly continues to provide support to the Houthis,” the statement said. “The Houthis can only continue to attack our forces with the backing of the Iranian regime.”

It added: “We will continue to ratchet up the pressure until the objective is met, which remains the restoration of freedom of navigation and American deterrence in the region.”

The U.S. is targeting the Houthis because of the group’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route, and on Israel. The Houthis also are the last militant group in Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” that is capable of regularly attacking Israel.

Early Monday, the Houthis aired footage of what it described as a U.S. strike targeting the ​​Bani Al Harith District north of Yemen’s rebel-held capital, Sanaa. Blood stains could be seen among the rubble and a damaged truck. The Houths’ al-Masirah satellite news channel reported that eight people were killed in the strike, something not immediately acknowledged by Health Ministry officials.

Strikes also hit Yemen’s Amran and Saada governorates during the night, the Houthis added. Two others were killed on Sunday, the Houthis said.

Assessing the toll of the month-old U.S. airstrike campaign has been difficult because the military hasn’t released specific information about the attacks, including what was targeted and how many people were killed. The Houthis, meanwhile, strictly control access to attacked areas and don’t publish complete information on the strikes, many of which likely have targeted military and security sites. Funeral notices suggest high-ranking Houthis have been killed in the American attacks.

“To preserve operational security, we have intentionally limited disclosing details of our ongoing or future operations,” Central Command said Monday. “We are very deliberate in our operational approach, but will not reveal specifics about what we’ve done or what we will do.”

But the military hasn’t acknowledged strikes killing civilians — something activists warn likely has happened in the intense campaign.

The U.S. is conducting strikes from its two aircraft carriers in the region — the USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea and the USS Carl Vinson in the Arabian Sea.

On April 18, an American strike on the Ras Isa fuel port killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others in the deadliest-known attack of the American campaign. Central Command on Monday offered an explanation for why it hit the port.

“U.S. strikes destroyed the ability of Ras Isa Port to accept fuel which will begin to impact Houthi ability to not only conduct operations, but also to generate millions of dollars in revenue for their terror activities,” it said.

Meanwhile, the Houthis have increasingly sought to control the flow of information from the territory it holds to the outside world. It issued a notice Sunday that all those holding Starlink satellite internet receivers should “quickly hand over” the devices to authorities.

“A field campaign will be implemented in coordination with the security authorities to arrest anyone who sells, trades, uses, operates, installs or possesses these prohibited terminals,” the Houthis warned.

Starlink terminals have been crucial for Ukraine in fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion and receivers also have been smuggled into Iran amid unrest there.

MUSCAT, Oman — Negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program will return Saturday to the secluded sultanate of Oman, where experts on both sides will start hammering the technical details of any possible deal.

The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic closing in on half a century of enmity. Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.

Neither Iran nor the U.S. have offered any explanation on why the talks will return to the Omani capital of Muscat, nestled in the Hajar Mountains. Oman has been a mediator between the countries. Last weekend’s talks in Rome offered a more-equal flight distance between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, who are leading the negotiations.

But Rome remains in mourning after the death of Pope Francis, whose funeral will be Saturday. And Iranian state television, in covering last weekend’s talks, complained at length on air about the “paparazzi” gathered across the street from the Omani Embassy in Rome’s Camilluccia neighborhood.

“As you can see, unlike the first round of talks where the presence of journalists was limited and the Omanis had special management in place to prevent a large and chaotic media presence from disrupting the negotiations, this time in Rome, Italy, that kind of control hasn’t been applied,” said Hosnieh Sadat Shobeiri, an Iranian state TV journalist in gray, all-encompassing chador.

“Because of the crowd we’re seeing here, with media outlets from various countries — including some that are anti-Iran — it’s possible that we’ll hear more conflicting reports and news aimed at disrupting the talks coming out of Rome compared to Oman.”

The Muscat talks come as Iran appears to have lined up Chinese and Russian support. Araghchi traveled to Moscow last week and this week visited Beijing.

On Thursday, Chinese, Iran and Russian representatives met the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog that likely will verify compliance with any accord like it did with Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. That deal included China and Russia, as well as France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

However, Iran has greatly restricted the IAEA’s inspections — leading to fears internationally that centrifuges and other nuclear material could be diverted.

The IAEA offered no readout from the talks, but China’s state-run Xinhua news agency on Friday described the three nations as saying the agency has “the necessary potential and expertise to contribute constructively to this process.”

“China, Russia and Iran emphasized that political and diplomatic engagement based on mutual respect remains the only viable and practical path for resolving the Iran nuclear issue,” the report said. It added that China respects Iran’s “right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

The Trump administration has kept France, Germany and the U.K. out of its direct negotiations with Iran, something similarly reflected in Witkoff’s negotiations with Russia over ending its war on Ukraine.

Araghchi meanwhile has said he’s open to visiting Berlin, London and Paris to discuss the negotiations.

“The ball is now in the E3’s court,” Araghchi wrote on the social platform X on Thursday, using an acronym for the countries. “They have an opportunity to do away with the grip of Special Interest groups and forge a different path. How we act at this critical junction is likely to define the foreseeable future.”

The U.S. technical team was expected to arrive in Oman on Friday ahead of the talks Saturday. They’ll be led by Michael Anton, the director of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s policy planning staff. Anton does not have the nuclear policy experience of those who led America’s efforts in the 2015 talks. However, he was an early supporter of Trump, describing the 2016 election as a “charge the cockpit or you die” vote.

“A Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto,” Anton wrote. “With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances.”

He also criticized “Iran sycophancy” in the same essay.

Rubio, speaking on a podcast released this week, also kept up a Trump line that Iran needed to stop its enrichment of uranium entirely.

“If Iran wants a civil nuclear program, they can have one just like many other countries can have one, and that is they import enriched material,” Rubio said.

But Iran has insisted that keeping its enrichment is key. Witkoff also has muddied the issue by first suggesting in a television interview that Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67%, then later saying that all enrichment must stop.

Meanwhile, one more wildcard is Israel, whose devastating war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip grinds on. Trump initially announced the Iran talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side. But Israel, which for years has targeted Iran’s nuclear program with attacks on its facilities and scientists, has kept open the possibility of airstrikes to destroy Tehran’s enrichment sites.

On Monday, Israel’s military conducted drills preparing for possible new Iranian missile attacks, the country’s public broadcaster KAN reported.

“Our security services are on high alert given past instances of attempted sabotage and assassination operations designed to provoke a legitimate response,” Araghchi wrote Wednesday on X.

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