NOVANEWS
by VOA News
Warplanes from Saudi Arabia and its allies continued bombing key military installations in Yemen on Thursday to oust Shi’ite Muslim rebels seeking to overthrow Yemen’s president.
The attacks on the Houthi rebels, which began Wednesday at the urging of internationally backed Yemeni leader Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, have drawn angry reaction from Iran and raised fears across the region.
The airstrikes targeted sites around the main airport in the capital, Sana’a, and damaged homes in the area. Arab media reported airstrikes on Yemeni airbases in the cities of Taiz, Hodeida, Sana’a and Saada, as well.
Several thousand Houthi supporters gathered by midday Thursday at Sana’a’s iconic city gate, Bab al-Yemen, chanting, ‘Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Jews and victory to Islam.’ A Houthi commander organized and led the protest.
Iran supports the Houthi rebels, who follow a similar form of Shia Islam. The Islamic Its foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told Iranian TV that ‘the Saudi-led airstrikes should stop immediately, because it is against Yemen’s sovereignty.’
The Islamic Republic made clear the kingdom’s deployment of a Sunni coalition against Shi’ite enemies would complicate efforts to end a conflict likely to further inflame sectarian animosities in the region. But a senior Iranian official ruled out military intervention.
Death toll
Houthi health officials say at least 18 people were killed and 24 others wounded in the Saudi airstrikes.
A VOA freelancer, Jacfar Kukay, said unconfirmed reports indicate at least three Houthi leaders were among those killed or wounded. Kukay said local media reported Houthi leader Mohamed Ali al-Houthi was injured after his home was hit, but his spokesman denied the report.
A man in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, who was wearing a firefighter’s uniform, told the Houthis’ al-Maseera TV that Saudi and Arab planes had struck a number of civilian targets, killing women and children. The report had not been independently verified.
Arab League backs campaign
The Arab League pledged full support for the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen. Its head, Nabil al-Arabi, addressed member nations’ foreign ministers meeting in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The airstrike campaign began late Wednesday with the targeting of military installations that the Houthis had seized in their weeks-long push through the country’s southern part. The Houthis have been closing in on the main southern city of Aden.
Jordan, Egypt and Sudan confirmed their forces were taking part in the operation, while Pakistan’s foreign office said it is considering a request from Saudi Arabia to send troops.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency said Morocco had pledged to join as well, while the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya network said Saudi Arabia itself was committing 150,000 troops and 100 warplanes.
Hadi’s location unknown
As bombings continued Thursday, forces loyal to Hadi recaptured Aden’s international airport. He’d fled the presidential complex in Aden on Wednesday as Houthi forces closed in on the city, and his subsequent location was not publicly known.
Saudi Arabia also suspended flights at airports near the country’s southern border with Yemen.
Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, told reporters late Wednesday that the Saudis will do ‘anything necessary’ to protect Yemen’s people and its ‘legitimate government.’
US logistical, intelligence support
The White House said the United States is coordinating with the Saudi-led military coalition and providing ‘logistical and intelligence support,’ but not taking direct military action.
‘We strongly urge the Houthis to halt immediately their destabilizing military actions and return to negotiations as part of the political dialogue,’ National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement. ‘The international community has spoken clearly through the U.N. Security Council … that the violent takeover of Yemen by an armed faction is unacceptable….’
Yemen has sunk into violence and chaos since a popular uprising ousted longtime strongman President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2012.
But U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker expressed concern about the administration’s handling of the entire region.
‘The administration is having a degree of difficulty deciding who our friends are and who our enemies are,’ Corker said. ‘And so there is a lot of consternation about where America is in the Middle East, and you are beginning to see a shift of alliances, and it is creating some turmoil there.’
Fellow Republican Senator Jeff Flake refrained from linking Washington-directed policy with the current crisis in Yemen.
‘I don’t think anybody could have predicted what’s gone on the last month,’ Flake said. ‘I haven’t been enamored with the president’s foreign policy, but this one – it’s a tough neighborhood.’
Analyzing situation
Many Yemeni military units have joined the Houthis, raising worries of a civil war.
‘Since the Houthis are supported by Iran, the great fear is Iranian involvement in the region, which most countries in the region are really, really afraid of,’ said Yiftah Shapir, a researcher on Arab militaries with Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies.
Shapir said Iran did not initiate the conflict in Yemen, which has been going on for decades, but rather was defending its own strategic interests.
‘If you try to look at the world from Iranian eyes, you see a very dangerous world, with Iran’s greatest enemies actually surrounding Iran,’ he said.
However, Arab states see Iran’s activities in Yemen as threatening their interests, Shapir said.
‘The Iranians are taking very good advantage’ of the Yemen confrontation, he said, ‘and by that put themselves in a position that endangers almost everybody in the region, especially Saudi Arabia.’
White the confrontation is frequently attributed to the centuries-old Sunni-Shi’ite rivalry, analysts say there are many other factors.
Nevertheless, they say it adds to Middle East instability, which is being exploited, not only by Iran, but by radical Sunni groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State militant group.
Yemen expert Charles Schmitz, who teaches geography at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland, told VOA that in the regional geo-strategic rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, ‘the Iranians are very happy that they are causing the Saudis trouble in Yemen.
But he said he doubted Iran would get directly involved in the conflict – ‘at least not at this point.
‘It really comes down to how quickly they come to a negotiated settlement and how far the [Saudi-led] military action is going to go,’ Schmitz said. ‘… A lot of it does depend on what happens to the military balance on the ground.’
