US President Donald Trump on Friday posted a video purportedly showing dozens of Houthi fighters being killed in an American strike on Yemen, adding the comment “oops”.

Resembling images shot from military drones or other loitering aircraft, the black-and-white footage Trump posted to his Truth Social network shows several dozen human figures from an almost vertical angle.

“These Houthis gathered for instructions on an attack,” Trump wrote in an accompanying text, using an alternate spelling for the Yemeni rebel group.

American forces have carried out major raids on Yemen in recent weeks in response to the group’s attacks on Red Sea shipping.

“Oops, there will be no attack by these Houthis,” Trump wrote.

“They will never sink our ships again!”

Gathered in a loose oval along a road, the people in the video are superimposed with a gun camera-style crosshair.

A few seconds in, a bright flash appears in the middle of the scene, followed by billowing smoke.

The footage cuts to a wider shot showing a column of smoke over the apparent impact site and several vehicles parked further up the road.

The camera then cuts closer again to show a broad crater at the point of impact. No bodies are readily identifiable.

Washington announced a military offensive against the Houthis on March 15, promising to use overwhelming force until the group stopped firing on vessels in the key shipping routes of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

That day saw a wave of US air strikes that officials said killed senior Houthi leaders, and which the Houthis said killed 53 people.

Officials and media outlets belonging to the Houthis have reported multiple deaths in dozens of strikes this week that they blamed on the United States.

The group has attacked commercial and military shipping in what it says is a response to Israel’s campaign in the Gaza Strip.

Washington said on Wednesday it would send a second aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, to join the USS Harry S. Truman in the Middle East “to continue promoting regional stability, deter aggression, and protect the free flow of commerce in the region”.