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US President Donald Trump has become increasingly concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, a United Kingdom official tells CNN.
Thousands of civilians have been killed in the violence, and the country has been hit by a cholera outbreak and famine.
Trump got "fired up" while discussing the crisis during a recent phone call with British Prime Minister Theresa May, the official said.
"He was the most fired up that we've seen him since the chemical weapons attack in Syria," the official said, referring to Trump's expression of anger and disgust over an alleged chemical attack on civilians, including children, by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime earlier this year.
In retaliation, the Trump administration blasted the Syrian airbase that launched the attack with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
During the call with May, Trump sounded angry while discussing the suffering of the civilians and told the prime minister that more pressure must be applied to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to prevent it, the official said.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Houthi revolutionaries tightened its blockade on Yemeni ports in early November.
Earlier this month, Trump called on Saudi Arabia to end its blockade. The Saudi-led coalition said in a statement Wednesday that it would permit the Hodeida port in Yemen, the Houthi-controlled port, to open for 30 days to allow in humanitarian and relief supplies.
The Trump administration has separately ramped up its own counterterrorism activities in Yemen, conducting "multiple ground operations" and launching "more than 120" airstrikes since the beginning of this year, according to a statement issued Wednesday by US Central Command, which oversees US military operations in the region.
Those operations target al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is the local al Qaeda affiliate, as well the local branch of ISIS, killing several leaders in October and November, according to Central Command.
Officials say both groups have exploited the chaos of the civil war, with the Central Command statement saying the ISIS branch "has doubled in size over the past year."
"Every strike, every raid and every partnered operation advance the defeat of these violent extremist organizations," Lt. Col. Earl Brown, a military spokesman, said in the statement. "US forces will continue to use all effective measures to degrade the groups' ability to export terror."
Earlier this month the US Agency for International Development announced "nearly $130 million in emergency food assistance" to Yemen, saying the US was "gravely concerned about the worsening humanitarian situation."
Source: CNN, Edited by Website Team
