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US steps up arms deliveries to Saudi-led coalition in Yemen Houthi rebels fight street battles with militias in Yemeni city of Aden
(about 3 hours later)
Washington deepened its involvement in the Saudi-led air war in Yemen on Wednesday, as aid agencies scrambled to deliver help to civilians caught up in the campaign now heading into its third week. Houthi rebels fought street-by-street battles with local militias in the old centre of Aden on Wednesday, as the first boatloads of emergency medical aid arrived in the south Yemeni port city where aid workers say a humanitarian catastrophe looms.
The Red Cross has warned of a “catastrophic” situation in the main southern city of Aden, where militia loyal to the fugitive president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi have been holding out against Shia-backed Houthi rebels and their allies within the security forces. Residents saw a dozen bodies strewn on the streets and said that rocket fire had damaged and destroyed a number of buildings. Mosques broadcast appeals for jihad against the Houthi movement, Shia fighters allied to Iran who have taken over large areas of Yemen.
Scores of people have been killed or wounded in the street fighting in the heart of the port city and the aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières‎ said it feared that many more had been unable to reach hospitals. By mid-afternoon residents of the central Crater neighbourhood said the Houthi push, backed by tanks and armoured vehicles, had been at least partially repelled, and that Houthi fighters had been cleared from some northern neighbourhoods.
The main Shia power, Iran, which has strongly opposed the Saudi-led intervention, stepped up its efforts for a negotiated settlement with a visit to the Saudi ally Pakistan by foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Islamabad has so far deflected appeals by Riyadh to join the coalition of nine, mainly Sunni, Arab countries intervening in Yemen, for fear of deepening sectarian divisions at home and across the Muslim world. Related: Yemen conflict: 'This war has killed everything that was beautiful'
Iran also sent two warships to the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, establishing a military presence off the coast of Yemen. The destroyer and support vessel sailed from Bandar Abbas on a mission to protect Iranian shipping from piracy, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said in comments cited by Press TV. Aden has been the target of a three-week-old assault by Houthi forces, which already control the Yemeni capital of Sana’a. Saudi Arabia, Iran’s regional rival, launched air strikes on 26 March in a bid to stop the Houthi advance, a move that has turned Yemen into the latest theatre of a regional proxy conflict between the Gulf’s leading Sunni and Shia powers.
The US deputy secretary of state Antony Blinken said Washington was stepping up weapons deliveries and intelligence-sharing in support of the Saudi-led coalition. The UAE’s foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, said on Wednesday that the Saudi-led coalition would seek a UN ban on arms sales to the Houthis and accused Iran of meddling in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Saudi Arabia is sending a strong message to the Houthis and their allies that they cannot overrun Yemen by force,” Blinken told reporters in the Saudi capital late on Tuesday. “In support of that effort, we have expedited weapons deliveries,” he said after talks with the defence minister, Mohammad bin Salman, and other officials. Tehran, which denies arming the Houthi rebels, sent two warships to the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, where it said they would protect Iranian shipping. The US, a key Saudi ally, has deepened its involvement, announcing late on Tuesday that it was stepping up weapons deliveries and intelligence-sharing in support of the Saudi-led coalition.
A US defence official told AFP that Washington was sending primarily precision-guided munitions. “Saudi Arabia is sending a strong message to the Houthis and their allies that they cannot overrun Yemen by force,” the US deputy secretary of state Antony Blinken told reporters in Riyadh. “In support of that effort, we have expedited weapons deliveries.”
The coalition launched its air war on 26 March as the rebels and their allies closed in on Hadi’s last refuge, Aden, prompting him to flee to neighbouring Saudi Arabia. A US defence official told Agence France-Presse that Washington was sending primarily precision-guided munitions.
Riyadh accuses Tehran of backing the rebels and has vowed to bomb them into surrender to prevent them establishing a pro-Iran state on its doorstep. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned of a “catastrophic” situation in Aden, where militias loyal to the fugitive president, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, have been holding out against Houthi rebels and their allies within the security forces.
But the rebels have powerful allies in the security forces who have remained loyal to the former president, longtime strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was forced from power in 2012 after a bloody, year-long, Arab Spring-inspired uprising. Related: Crisis in Yemen – the Guardian briefing
Eight rebels and three loyalist militiamen were killed in clashes in Aden overnight, a military source said. Saudi-led warplanes also bombed rebel positions at the city’s international airport and the huge Al-Anad air base to its north, another military source said. The fighting has had a devastating impact on some parts of the city. Scores of people have been killed, water and electricity have been cut off in central neighbourhoods and hospitals have struggled to cope with the casualties.
Al-Anad was a key monitoring post in Washington’s longstanding drone war against al-Qaida, until the US withdrew its troops as fighting intensified last month. “It’s nearly catastrophic,” said ICRC’s spokeswoman in Yemen, Marie Claire Feghali. “Shops are closed, so people cannot get food, they cannot get water. There are still dead bodies in the street. Hospitals are extremely exhausted.”
The deepening conflict has raised fears that the jihadists will exploit the power vacuum. A boat carrying 2.5 tonnes of medicine docked in Aden on Wednesday, the medical aid group Médecins Sans Frontières said.
Last week, al-Qaida seized much of the Hadramawt provincial capital Mukalla. On Tuesday, they attacked one of the last loyalist strongholds in the city. The ICRC said a surgical team also reached Aden on Wednesday by boat, and was heading to a hospital in the city of a million people.
Ashton Carter, the US defence secretary, acknowledged on Wednesday that the fighting in Yemen was complicating Washington’s counter-terrorism efforts but vowed that they would go on regardless. “Obviously it’s always easier to conduct CT ops when there is a stable government willing to co-operate,” he said. The World Health Organisation says at least 643 people have been killed in the conflict and more than 2,200 wounded. Tens of thousands of families have been displaced by fighting on the ground and by the air strikes.
“That circumstance now obviously doesn’t exist in Yemen but that doesn’t mean that we don’t continue to take steps to protect ourselves. We have to do it in a different way, but we do and we are.” Iran stepped up its efforts for a negotiated settlement with a visit to the Saudi ally Pakistan by foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Islamabad has so far deflected appeals by Riyadh to join the coalition of nine mainly Sunni Arab countries intervening in Yemen, for fear of deepening sectarian divisions at home and across the Muslim world.
As Iran’s most senior diplomat prepared to visit, Pakistan said it would take its time deciding whether to accept the Saudi request to join the coalition. The deepening conflict has raised fears that al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the terror group’s Yemeni wing, will exploit the power vacuum. It stormed the town of Mukalla last week, freeing a jailed local leader, and on Wednesday was reported by a monitoring group to have offered bounty of 20 kg (44 lb) of gold for the capture or killing of the leader of Yemen’s Houthi forces and his ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Prime minister Nawaz Sharif said Pakistan was “not in a hurry” to decide and that diplomatic efforts were under way involving Turkey and Iran. Ashton Carter, the US defence secretary, acknowledged on Wednesday that the fighting in Yemen was complicating Washington’s counter-terrorism efforts but vowed that they would go on regardless. “Obviously it’s always easier to conduct CT ops when there is a stable government willing to cooperate,” he said.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has expressed support for the coalition without providing military forces, held talks in Tehran on Tuesday. His Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, said after their meeting: “We both think war and bloodshed must stop in this area immediately and a complete ceasefire must be established and the strikes must stop.” “That circumstance now obviously doesn’t exist in Yemen, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t continue to take steps to protect ourselves. We have to do it in a different way, but we do and we are.”
Pakistan faces a tricky dilemma, as it has long enjoyed close ties with Riyadh and has benefited hugely from the oil-rich kingdom’s largesse. But it has called for a negotiated solution, saying it does not want to take part in any conflict that would worsen sectarian divisions in the Muslim world.