A coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia has launched a series of air strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, the opening gambit in an operation that could lead to a ground offensive in the embattled country.
The air strikes, backed by the US, were aimed at halting the rebel advance towards the stronghold of Yemen’s president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, in southern Yemen, and threaten a regional confrontation with Iran, which backs the rebels.
“We will do all we can to protect the legitimate government in Yemen and prevent it from collapsing and facing the dangers of militias,” the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, said at a press conference late on Wednesday. “The situation in Yemen is dangerous and it is unprecedented for a militia to control air forces and ballistic missiles and heavy weapons.”
Saudi Arabia deployed 100 fighter jets and 150,000 troops for the operation, dubbed Decisive Storm according to TV station al-Arabiya, which is owned by the Saudis. The UAE contributed 30 fighter jets, Kuwait and Bahrain 15 each, Qatar 10 and Jordan six.
Egypt is providing naval support, deploying four warships to secure the Gulf of Aden, maritime sources at the Suez canal told Reuters. The White House said it was providing “logistical and intelligence support” to the Saudi-led forces attacking the rebels. The operation is led by the Saudi defence minister, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the king’s son.
Saudi Arabia said Houthi-controlled air defences and four warplanes were destroyed as well as al-Dulaimi air base. A Houthi-backed TV station said 18 civilians were killed in the air strikes.
The intervention came a day after Hadi’s government demanded an Arab military intervention to halt the Houthi advance, which came close to storming his southern redoubt of Aden. The Houthis, members of the Zaydi Shia sect, took control of the capital, Sana’a, last year before placing Hadi under house arrest. He fled to Aden this month.
There is growing Arab anxiety over Iran’s influence in Yemen and Iraq, as well as its involvement alongside the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and its prominence in Lebanon, where it backs the powerful military and political organisation Hezbollah.
“The strategic change in the region to Iran’s benefit, whose banner was carried by the Houthis, cannot be ignored,” said the UAE’s foreign minister, Anwar Gargash. “The crisis in Yemen and the Houthi coup is another sign of the weakness of the Arab regional regime, and Decisive Storm is a new page of Arab co-operation to keep the region secure.”
Iran, which has aligned itself with the Houthis, strongly objected to the Saudi air strikes against the rebel forces, urging their immediate halt.
“We demand an immediate stop to the Saudi military operations in Yemen and we believe they are an infringement to Yemen’s sovereignty,” said Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, according to the semi-official Isna news agency. “These operations will only lead to bloodshed and we will spare no efforts to contain the crisis in Yemen.”
The EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, warned of regional risks from fighting in Yemen and said there could be no military solution. “The latest events in Yemen have dramatically worsened the already fragile situation in the country and risk having serious regional consequences,” Mogherini, the former Italian foreign minister, said in a statement. “I’m convinced that military action is not a solution.” It was unclear whether the Saudi-led coalition intended to embark on a ground incursion into Yemen. A Saudi source familiar with defence matters told Reuters that a ground offensive may be needed to restore order in the country, while Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukri, told a gathering of Arab foreign ministers in Sharm al Sheikh that his country was ready to send in ground troops if necessary.
The Gulf states have intervened on the ground before in recent years, with Saudi troops moving in to quell the uprising in Bahrain in 2011 in support of the Sunni Al Khalifa monarchy, which rules over a Shia majority. The Gulf was also influential in backing the passage of a UN security council resolution authorising the military intervention in Libya against Muammar Gaddafi.
But a ground intervention in Yemen would pose major new challenges, pitting the coalition against an insurgent movement backed by Iran with important redoubts in the country’s north.
Ali al-Noaimi, a prominent UAE columnist, said the Gulf states were ready for a ground intervention but were hoping the air strikes would create “paralysis and shock” among the Houthis and open the road for a popular backlash that compels them to retreat, avoiding the need for a land offensive.
“I think the Gulf states, when they took the decision to respond to President Hadi’s request, took all the calculations into consideration, including a ground intervention,” he said.
But he added that since there was popular opposition to the Houthis, and tribal fighters and soldiers were still loyal to Hadi, the Gulf states could avoid the need for a ground attack if the air strikes energise popular opposition to Houthi rule.
Noaimi said the Gulf states had not seen the Houthis as a threat until they became “a tool of Iranian hegemony”.
Since the Houthi’s takeover of Sana’a, Iran has boosted its relations with the rebels, establishing direct flights to the Yemeni capital and hosting a group of influential rebels for talks in Tehran.
In the aftermath of last Friday’s deadly attacks on two mosques in Sana’a, claimed by Islamic State, Iran dispatched medical equipment and a team of doctors to Yemen and brought a group of 50 injured people to Tehran for treatment.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Marzieh Afkham, echoed Zarif in her condemnation of the Saudi-led campaign, saying it would undermine the security in the region.
“Resorting to military actions against Yemen, which is already engaged in internal conflict and fighting terrorism, will further complicate the situation, spread the extent of the crisis and squander opportunities to peacefully resolve internal disputes in Yemen,” she said, according to the state-run Press TV.
In a statement published by the Saudi press agency, the countries of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain said they would answer a request from Hadi “to protect Yemen and his dear people from the aggression of the Houthi militias, which were and are still a tool in the hands of foreign powers that don’t stop meddling with the security and stability of brotherly Yemen”. Oman, the sixth member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, was not a signatory to the statement.
Hadi’s whereabouts remained unclear on Thursday. Sky News Arabia said he had arrived in Oman. He is expected at an Arab summit in Egypt this weekend.