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Why is Saudi Arabia conducting airstrikes in Yemen?

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Mohammad Bilal
Mohammad BilalJan 24, 2022 | 20:04

Why is Saudi Arabia conducting airstrikes in Yemen?

Saudi Arabia conducted massive air raids on Yemen which killed around 70 people and left scores of people injured.

Yemen has been at the centre of one of the world's worst humanitarian crises for the past seven years. The recent strikes by Saudi Arabia have just worsened it. In the airstrikes carried out by Saudi Arabia last week; January 21, 2022, on a detention centre in Yemen, more than 70 people lost their lives and 130 were injured. Another airstrike came the same day, and struck the telecommunications buildings in the port city of Hodeidah. It left more than 3 children dead and the entire country struggling with a blackout.

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These attacks on Yemen are in retaliation of the recent drone attacks at three oil facilities in the capital city of UAE, Abu Dhabi, on January 17, 2022, allegedly by Houthi rebels of Yemen. The attack left two Indian nationals and a Pakistani dead, and six other injured.

Saudi Arabia, along with eight Sunni Muslim countries, has been fighting the Houthi rebels in Yemen since 2015.

First, who are the Houthi rebels?

Houthi rebels are a Shia minority group that allegedly gets backing from the Shia-ruled Iran. Saudi Arabia, with the aid of US-made weapons, is conducting airstrikes in Yemen, in its effort to dislodge the Iran-backed Houthi rebels from the country. 

But why is Saudi Arabia attacking Yemen?

1. THE TUMULT OF 2015

Yemen is a strategically important country that sits on the strait linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden through which many of the world's important oil shipments pass through. 

The country came to a boil in early 2015, when the Houthi Rebels sensed the weakness of the Hadi government, who had failed to address mass issues of the country like poverty, hunger crisis and corruption.

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In 2015, the rebels intensified the fight against the forces of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and captured the capital city of Sana’a. The Houthi rebels captured the northern Saada province and neighbouring provinces. The group also had the backing of former President Abdullah Saleh, who was later killed by the Houthi rebels in 2017 following the conflict over the control of Sana'a's biggest mosque.

President Hadi fled abroad and settled in Saudi Arabia. He then ran the government from there.

2. SAUDI ARABIA IN ACTION

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A building destroyed after an airstrike by Saudi Arabia in Yemen. Photo: Getty Images

Mohammad Bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, was quick to launch a retaliation attack as the Kingdom and the West too felt that the developments in Yemen were designed and executed by Iran through Houthis.

Saudi Arabia, along with eight Muslim countries, launched airstrikes against the Houthi rebels. The Saudi coalition also received logistical and intelligence support from the UK, France and US. Coalition troops of Saudi Arabia landed in the southern port city of Aden in August 2015, and drove out Houthis and their allies in the next few months. The Houthi rebels, however still held the capital city of Sana’a and North-Western Yemen. Since then, Saudi Arabia has been fighting the Houthi rebels. 

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Initially, Saudi Arabia had said that the war would end in a few months; but it has now been more than seven years with an end nowhere in sight.

3. BIDEN DOUBLE TALK ON YEMEN WAR

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US President Joe Biden. Photo: Getty Images

In 2021, US president Joe Biden had revoked the delegating of the Houthi group as a terrorist organisation, done so by former US President Donald Trump. Biden had also called for ending the war in Yemen, and termed the action of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen as offensive operations.

But then, Biden’s administration recently approved USD 650 million in arms sales through Congress to Saudi Arabia under the pretext of supplying weapons for defence purposes. At a press conference, when Biden was asked about his previous claim of ending the Yemen war, he said, "Ending the war in Yemen takes the two parties involved to do it. And it's going to be very difficult.”

In a way, the conflict in Yemen also served as an opportunistic one for the US as it helped the country ramp up its sale of arms to Saudi Arabia to bolster the military-industrial complex of US imperialism.

4. YEMEN IS CRYING

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Debris of destroyed building after an airstrike. Photo: Getty Images

Though Saudi Arabia might justify the airstrikes under the garb of retaliatory measures, the brunt of the war is being faced by the people of Yemen. According to estimates by the United Nations, more than 3,77,000 people have lost their lives till the end of 2021. 60 percent of these deaths were due to indirect causes like famine and other preventable diseases. The rest were caused by air raids and live combat.

Also, as per UN estimates, more than 70 per cent children have died in the crisis.

5. NOT THE FIRST TIME INDIANS ARE KILLED

Two Indians, Hardev Singh (35) and Hardeep Singh (28) from Punjab, who died in the drone attack in Dubai aren’t the first ones to die in Yemen war-related attacks. In September 2015, airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition in Western Yemen had killed 7 Indian nationals.

The strike was targeted at Western Yemen on two boats at Al-Khokha, a small port near Hodeidah, which was used by Indians to smuggle badly needed fuel supplies into the country. The airstrikes and attacks by troops had caused a blockade on sea and land routes, preventing the supplies from other parts of the world.

Last updated: January 24, 2022 | 20:04
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