The turmoil in Yemen grew into a regional conflict on
Thursday, with Saudi Arabia and its allies bombing Shia rebels allied
with Iran, while Egyptian officials said a ground assault will follow
the airstrikes.
Iran denounced the Saudi-led air
campaign, saying it “considers this action a dangerous step,” and oil
prices jumped in New York and London after the offensive.
The military action turned impoverished and chaotic Yemen into a new front in the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Yemen’s
U.S.-backed President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled the country on
Wednesday as the rebels known as Houthis advanced on his stronghold in
the southern port of Aden, reappeared on Thursday. He arrived by plane
in Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh, Saudi state TV reported.
Starting
before dawn, Saudi warplanes pounded an air base, military bases and
anti-aircraft positions in the capital of Sanaa and flattened a number
of homes near the airport, killing at least 18 civilians, including six
children. Another round followed in the evening, again rocking the city.
Rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi angrily accused
the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel of launching a “criminal,
unjust, brutal and sinful” campaign aimed at invading and occupying
Yemen.
“Yemenis won’t accept such humiliation,” he
said in a televised speech on Thursday night, calling the Saudis
“stupid” and “evil.”
The Houthis, who have taken
over much of the country, mobilized thousands of supporters to protest
the airstrikes, with one speaker lashing out at the Saudi-led coalition
and warning that Yemen “will be the tomb” of the aggressors.
Saudi
Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. Adel al-Jubeir said at a news
conference in Washington on Thursday that Iran has been a major backer
of the Houthis, with Revolutionary Guard officers and operatives from
the Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah on the ground advising the
rebels.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz told
reporters on Air Force One en route to Alabama that President Barack
Obama had authorized logistical and intelligence support for the
strikes, but that the U.S. is not joining with direct military action.
In
the air assault codenamed “Operation Decisive Storm,” Saudi Arabia
deployed some 100 fighter jets, 150,000 soldiers and other navy units,
Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV reported. Also involved were aircraft from the
United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan
and Egypt, though it was not clear which carried out actual strikes.
Once
the airstrikes have weakened the rebels and their allies in the
military forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a ground
invasion of Yemen is planned by Egyptian Saudi and other forces.
The
assault will come from Saudi Arabia and by landings on Yemen’s coasts
along the Red and Arabian seas, according to three Egyptian military and
security officials.
Three to five Egyptian troop
carriers are stationed offshore, they said, although the number of
troops was not specified, and the timing of the operation was not given.
The aim is not to occupy Yemen but to weaken the
Houthis and their allies until they enter negotiations for
power-sharing, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity
because they were not authorized to talk about the plans with the press.
Egypt is “prepared for participation with naval,
air and ground forces if necessary,” Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri said
at a gathering of Arab foreign ministers preparing for a weekend summit
in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Saudi
Arabia and fellow Sunni-led allies in the Gulf and the Middle East view
the Houthi takeover as an attempt by Iran to establish a proxy on the
kingdom’s southern border. Iran and the Houthis deny that Tehran arms
the rebel movement, though it says it provides diplomatic and
humanitarian support.
The Saudis and their Gulf
allies on Thursday asked members of the United Nations Security Council
for a resolution that would impose an arms embargo on the rebels and
impose financial sanctions on individual members.
The dramatic escalation of the conflict underscores the political complexities for Washington in the Middle East-
A traditional ally of Saudi Arabia, the U.S. is trying to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran by the end of the month.
In
Iraq, the U.S. and Iran are implicitly on the same side helping the
Shia-led Baghdad government battle the Sunni extremists of the Islamic
State group, although Tehran and Washington are avoiding any actual
contact.
In Yemen, the U.S. is backing Gulf Arab
states against the Shia rebels allied to Iran. At the same time, the
al-Qaeda branch in the country the target of a U.S. drone campaign is
also fighting the Shia rebels.
Iran condemned the
airstrikes that left “innocent Yemenis wounded and dead, and considers
this action a dangerous step,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh
Afkham. “This invasion will bear no result but expansion of terrorism
and extremism throughout the whole region.”
Yemen
plays a crucial geographic role in the world’s oil supply, with tankers
that go through the Suez Canal having to navigate around the country.
The turmoil caused the price of benchmark U.S. crude to jump $2.22,
closing at $51.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent
crude, a benchmark for international oils, rose $2.71 to $59.19 a barrel
in London.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Emirates, Qatar
and Bahrain said their action aimed to “protect” Yemenis from Houthis
who are “a tool in the hands of foreign powers.”
In recent months, the Houthis have swept out of their northern strongholds to take over Sanaa and much of the north.
The
Houthis have succeeded in their advance with help from Saleh, the
autocrat who ruled Yemen for more than 30 years until he was ousted
after a 2011 Arab Spring popular uprising. He remained in the country,
enjoying the loyalty of some of the strongest military units, which
undermined Hadi. Those units are now fighting alongside the Houthis.
The
airstrikes appeared to give new spirit to military units and militiamen
loyal to Hadi. In Aden, pro-Hadi militiamen battled in two districts
with Houthi fighters backed by Saleh’s forces. Bodies of slain fighters
were seen in the streets, as shops closed and residents sheltered in
their houses, witnesses said.
A Yemeni security
official said Hadi had gone by boat Wednesday to the Yemeni port of
al-Mukalla in the western province of Hadramawt, where he spent the
night. He drove over the border into Oman the next day and was flown to
Riyadh. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to release the information.
AP and The Hindu
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