By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Suspected U.S. airstrikes pummeled sites across Yemen controlled by the Houthi rebels early Friday, including neighborhoods in the capital, Sanaa.

The extent of the damage and possible casualties wasn’t immediately clear, though the number of strikes appeared particularly intense compared to other days in the campaign that began March 15.

An Associated Press review has found the new American operation under President Donald Trump appears more more extensive than those under former President Joe Biden, as the U.S. moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel as well as dropping bombs in cities.

Initial reports from the Houthis described at least seven people being hurt in the attacks Friday in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital that the rebels have held since 2014. Other strikes hit around the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, the rebel’s stronghold of Saada and in Yemen’s al-Jawf, Amran and Marib governorates.

This is a locator map for Yemen with its capital, Sanaa. (AP Photo)

The Houthis did not immediately acknowledge what at those sites had been targeted, other than Sanaa International Airport, which is used for both civilian and military traffic. Neighborhoods in the capital also are home to military and intelligence service sites — as well as crowded with civilians.

An Associated Press video showed one bomb dropping into Sanaa, with a huge plume of smoke rising into the night sky as many people were awake in the final days of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Other areas hit included mountainous terrain north of Sanaa in Amran, where military camps and other installations are believed to be. The Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news network described communication networks going down after the attacks, which included at least 19 strikes there alone.

The U.S. military’s Central Command, which now has authority from the White House to strike offensively in Yemen without pre-approval, did not immediately acknowledge conducting any strikes. The command, which under Biden offered details on individual strikes, has not provided that information in this campaign.

The new campaign of airstrikes, which the Houthis say have killed at least 57 people, started after the rebels threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The rebels in the past have had a loose definition of what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning other vessels could be targeted as well.

The Houthis had targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors during their campaign targeting ships from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships, though none have been hit so far.

The attacks greatly raised the Houthis’ profile as they faced economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting any dissent and aid workers at home amid Yemen’s decadelong stalemated war that has torn apart the Arab world’s poorest nation.

The Defense Department has been roiled by the Donald Trump administration’s desire to root out diversity, equity and inclusion programs his administration believes are divisive and unfair. This has manifested itself in closing offices focused on DEI; rescinding a variety of internal directives; restoring the names of military bases originally honoring Confederate generals; and adjusting websites to remove well-known military figures from Jackie Robinson to the heroic Navajo code talkers of World War II (after a public outcry, the Pentagon has said some web entries are being restored).

Additionally, the abrupt firing of two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — Chairman C.Q. Brown and Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti — seems tied to their support for DEI programs, although this was not explicit in their dismissals.

All of this has made me reflect on a variety of mentors I’ve had in the military. Many senior officers and civilian political leaders gave me sound advice, guidance when I’ve stumbled, and a leg up the Navy’s chain of command. And the majority of them have looked like me: straight white males.

But one mentor who was a big part of my career did not look like me: Colin Powell. And in so many ways, General Powell’s advice and guidance helped me precisely because our lives and careers were so different. What did I learn from Powell, and how can his advice help us in today’s world?

The child of Jamaican immigrants, Powell gained an Army commission through the Reserve Officer Training Corps at the City College of New York. Although he competed against well-connected West Point graduates at every level, he had a stellar career. He was the first Black officer to serve as the nation’s national security advisor, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and secretary of state. Powell’s combat experience spanned decades, from leading soldiers as a junior officer in Vietnam to helming the Pentagon during invasions of Panama (1989) and Iraq (1990-1991).

I first met him in 1992: I was a lowly Navy commander, he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs and giving a talk at the National Defense University, where I was a student. I was lucky enough to be among a dozen mid-grade officers chosen to meet with him. He immediately took off his tie, saying, “It’s OK for me to do that, but you guys better keep yours on.” We all laughed nervously.

The conversation included a memorable line from Powell: “You know, people criticize me for being a ‘political general.’ Guilty. I’ve worked in the White House as national security adviser, and I know politics. But that doesn’t mean I’m a Republican or a Democrat. What matters is the oath we swear to the Constitution.”

That sense of the active-duty military needing to stay out of domestic politics has stuck with me throughout my career, and I hope the current generation of leaders feels the same way — and I think they do.

In the early 2000s, during the George W. Bush presidency, I was the senior military assistant to Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld, and I spent plenty of time around then-Secretary of State Powell. I watched him provide gold-standard advice to the president and the top interagency officials. He was restrained and calm, and always brought his soldier’s outlook into the White House.

President Dwight Eisenhower, a figure to whom General Powell is often compared, famously said: “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can.” Powell injected that sort of experience into the counsels of an administration deeply enmeshed in what we called the Global War on Terror.

Powell also advised me to always tell the truth, especially to the news media. “I always regretted the results of the invasion of Iraq,” he said to me years later. “But when I spoke at the United Nations, it was based on the intelligence and briefings I had received. I’ll always regret how it turned out.”

A few years later, when I was selected as military commander for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the then-retired Powell was the first person I went to for guidance. I spent hours with him learning about the complex web of relationships between NATO and Washington. In particular, he warned not to let my exalted title, “supreme allied commander,” go to my head. Sound advice — it is the kind of job where you can easily become full of yourself.

After one session, as I was leaving, he gave me a copy of his memoir with a very kind inscription. But just to make sure I didn’t become overly pleased with myself, he said, “Just remember SACEUR, we didn’t send you over there to be Charlemagne,” i.e. the king of Europe, independent of the U.S. As always, his humor was a powerful tool in his leadership philosophy. (I mentioned that line later to another good friend, General George Casey, then chief of staff of the Army, and he said, “Don’t worry, Jim, you’re not tall enough to be Charlemagne.” Fair enough). I continued to reach out to Powell until his death in 2021. I miss him a great deal.

Finally, in all my engagements with Powell, what I learned most was to maintain a sense of optimism. His famous 13 Rules of Leadership was a pretty good summary of his life and philosophy. Four of those rules deal with the power of optimism: It will look better in the morning (No.1); It can be done (No. 4); don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers (No. 12); and optimism is a force multiplier (No. 13).

Like Napoleon (whom I am tall enough to quote, I suppose), Powell knew that a leader is a dealer in hope — not in fear, chaos or anger. Especially today, when confusing and contradictory messages about racial and gender pioneers are rife, he should be celebrated as a unique and remarkable leader whose impact is still felt. Fort Colin Powell, anyone?

James Stavridis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a retired US Navy admiral, former supreme allied commander of NATO, and vice chairman of global affairs at the Carlyle Group.

 

Today is Friday, March 28, the 87th day of 2025. There are 278 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On March 28, 1979, America’s worst commercial nuclear accident occurred with a partial meltdown inside the Unit 2 reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania.

Also on this date:

In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court, in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, ruled 6-2 that Wong, who was born in the United States to Chinese immigrants, was an American citizen. It was the first Supreme Court decision to rule on the citizenship status of a child born in the United States to noncitizen parents.

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In 1935, the notorious Nazi propaganda film “Triumph des Willens” (Triumph of the Will), directed by Leni Riefenstahl, premiered in Berlin with Adolf Hitler present.

In 1941, author Virginia Woolf, 59, drowned herself near her home in Lewes, East Sussex, England.

In 1969, the 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, died in Washington, D.C., at age 78.

In 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act (commonly referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” law), which includes the prohibition of classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in some grade levels in Florida schools.

In 2024, FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges related to the collapse of the exchange.

Today’s Birthdays:

Author Mario Vargas Llosa is 89.
Basketball Hall of Famer Rick Barry is 81.
Actor Dianne Wiest is 79.
Singer-actor Reba McEntire is 70.
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Stylist-TV personality Jonathan Van Ness is 38.

Rested or rusty? For the University of Minnesota’s men’s hockey team, it was maybe a little bit of both on Thursday night.

After 18 days off, the Gophers jumped to a 2-1 first-period lead, and took a 3-1 advantage into the third period before Massachusetts made it a new game with three unanswered third-period goals and won it on Aydar Suniev’s second goal in overtime, 5-4, at Scheels Arena in Fargo, N.D.

The winning goal was contentious.

Minnesota’s Ryan Chesley was carrying the puck into the UMass end when it appeared he was tripped. Chelsey lost the puck, and the Minutemen turned play the other way and scored the winner. Dans Locmelis corralled the puck and took it into the Gophers’ zone before backhanding it toward the net. Suniev, charging the net, tapped it in.

Suniev added a third-period goal, and the Minutemen (21-13-0) got goals from Larry Keenan, Daniel Jenčko and Francesco Dell’Elce to advance to face Western Michigan (31-7-1), the NCHC’s regular-season and tournament champion, in the regional final Sunday at Scheels Arena.

Puck drop is to be determined.

Jimmy Snuggerud forced overtime with the second of his goals, making it 4-4 with 3:36 remaining after Dell’Elce had given UMass a lead.

Connor Kurth and Brody Lamb also scored for Minnesota (25-11-4), which hadn’t played a game since getting upset by Notre Dame in the first round of the Big Ten Conference tournament on March 9. That spurred concerns that the Gophers might be rusty for their NCAA tournament opener

Dell’Elce scored an even-strength goal to give the Minutemen a 4-3 lead with 4 minutes, 53 seconds remaining in regulation, but Snuggerud answered with his second goal to tie it and ultimately send the game to overtime.

Snuggerud scored a power-play goal at 14:14 of the first period to give the Gophers a 1-0 lead.

Keenan scored for UMass (20-13) just 20 seconds later to tie the score 1-1, but Lamb scored an even-strength goal with 1:11 left in the first period for a 2-1 lead.

Kurth made it 3-1 with an even-strength goal on assists by Jimmy Clark and Matthew Wood with six minutes left in the second period.

It stayed that way until Suniev scored an even-strength goal for the Minutemen to make it 3-2, and 1:35 later, Daniel Jenčko scored to tie the game, 3-3.

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