Fighter jet goes overboard from USS Harry S Truman. Yemen's Houthis assess Sanaa airport damage

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An F/A-18 fighter jet landing on the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea went overboard, forcing its two pilots to eject, a defense official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The incident Tuesday marks the latest mishap to mar the deployment of the Truman, which has been essential in the airstrike campaign by the United States against Yemen's Houthi rebels.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump and Oman's foreign minister both said that a ceasefire had been reached with the Houthis, who would no longer target ships in the Red Sea corridor.

A Houthi spokesman early Thursday sought to portray the ceasefire as a victory for the rebels, describing it as America “stopping aggression in exchange for stopping attacks." The rebels claimed a drone attack on Israel on Wednesday, something acknowledged by the Israeli military without it being attributed to the rebels.

“It is ridiculous for Washington to claim that Sana’a raised the flag of surrender, but this is not important," Hashem Sharaf al-Din said in a statement carried by the state-run SABA news agency. “What is important is that Yemen’s victory represented a major shift in the balance of power in favor of Yemen, which was able to force America to halt its aggression and stop its attacks.”

Trump, speaking in the Oval Office on Wednesday, said he expects the Houthis in Yemen to uphold their commitment to stop firing on cargo vessels in the Red Sea.

“Hopefully that’s over with, and they’ll leave those ships alone,” he said. “We take their word for it.”

Meanwhile, the Houthis continue to assess the damage after daytime Israeli airstrikes targeted Yemen's rebel-held capital of Sanaa.

The F/A-18 Super Hornet landed on the Truman after a flight, but “the arrestment failed,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the incident now under investigation.

"Arrestment" refers to the hook system used by aircraft landing on carriers, which catches steel wire ropes on the flight deck. It remains unclear what part of the system failed.

The two pilots on board were later rescued by a helicopter and suffered minor injuries in the incident, the official added. No one on the flight deck was hurt.

CNN first reported on the incident.

Tuesday's incident was the latest to see the Navy lose an F/A-18, which cost about $60 million. In April, another F/A-18 fighter jet slipped off the hangar deck of the Truman and fell into the Red Sea. The crew members who were in the pilot seat of the Super Hornet and on the small towing tractor both jumped away.

In December, the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg mistakenly shot down an F/A-18 after ships earlier shot down multiple Houthi drones and an anti-ship cruise missile launched by the rebels. Both aviators in that incident also survived.

And in February, the Truman collided with a merchant vessel near Port Said, Egypt.

The Truman, based out of Norfolk, Virginia, has seen its deployment extended multiple times amid the Houthi airstrike campaign. It had been joined recently by the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier operating out of the Arabian Sea.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote on the social platform X that an investigation was underway and that “this aircraft was not struck by the Houthis.”

“The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group remains fully mission-capable,” he added.

The Israeli attack on Tuesday that targeted Sanaa International Airport devastated the airfield. Khaled al-Shaif, the head of the airport, told the Houthis' al-Masirah satellite news channel that the Israeli strike destroyed the airport's terminal and left craters in its runway.

Satellite images from Maxar Technologies showed craters and destroyed aircraft on the taxiways of the airfield.

At least six passenger planes were struck, including three belonging to Yemenia Airways, the country's flag-carrying airline, he said. That leaves the airline with only one functional aircraft, which was spared only because it had left earlier in the day on a flight to Amman, Jordan. He put overall damage there at $500 million.

With the damage, the airport was now out of service, al-Shaif said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said the strikes on the airport, as well as earlier Israeli strikes on Hodeida's seaport, affected “vital gateways for humanitarian aid and basic essentials such as food and medical supplies.”

“After more than a decade of conflict in Yemen, civilians and the infrastructure they rely on cannot endure any further strain,” it added.

The Houthis had been waging persistent missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

From November 2023 until January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The Houthis paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the U.S. launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March. Meanwhile, a wider, decadelong war in Yemen between the Houthis and the country's exiled government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, remains in a statemate.

A Yemeni officer inspects the damage following Israeli airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

Yemenis inspect wreckage of a destroyed civilian aircraft following Israeli airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

A Yemeni officer inspects the wreckage of a destroyed civilian aircraft following Israeli airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

This frame grab from a handout video provided by the Ansar Allah Media Office shows smoke billowing from civilian aircraft following Israeli airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, May 6, 2025.(Courtesy of Ansar Allah Media Office via AP)

This frame grab from a handout video provided by the Ansar Allah Media Office shows smoke billowing from civilian aircraft following Israeli airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, May 6, 2025.(Courtesy of Ansar Allah Media Office via AP)

FILE - Aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is moored near Split, Croatia, Feb. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)