WASHINGTON, May 7 -- President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he's ordering a halt to nearly two months of US airstrikes on Yemen's Houthis, saying that the Iran-backed rebels have indicated that "they don't want to fight anymore" and have pledged to stop attacking ships along a vital maritime corridor.

"We're going to stop the bombing of the Houthis, effective immediately," Trump said at the start of his Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, AP reports.

Trump said that the Houthis had indicated to US officials that "they don't want to fight anymore. They just don't want to fight. And we will honour that, and we will stop the bombings."

That likely means an abrupt end to a bombing campaign that began in March, w...