Yemen Missile Attack Kills More Than 100
Yemeni soldiers stand at attention during a peacetime protest almost a decade ago; now, they are caught up in a deadly war. (Wikipedia)
A deadly missile attack in Yemen’s Marib province killed more than 100 Yemeni soldiers on January 18, reports Haaretz. The strike, which targeted the mosque of a military camp, marks the latest chapter in the ongoing Yemeni civil war. Although the Houthi rebels have yet to claim responsibility for the strike, Al Jazeera reported that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the Yemeni government were quick to condemn the attack and placed blame squarely on the rebel group. Haaretz reports that Saudi Arabia accused the rebel forces of sabotaging peace talks, stating that their “terrorist crimes deliberately undermine the path to a political solution.” Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi went further, asserting that this act of aggression “confirms without doubt that the Houthis have no desire for peace.”
This assault has effectively ended a period of de-escalation that began in September 2019 when UN-led negotiations and unofficial talks between the Saudis and Houthis led to the lowest level of violence in two years, Reuters reports. The recent missile attack, however, represents one of the single most violent episodes of the entire conflict in a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people since it began in 2015. Over the course of this war, the Houthis have frequently relied on drones and missiles, including attacks on Saudi Aramco’s oil fields last year, reports Al Jazeera. This latest strike on a military camp was apparently carried out in response to a series of attacks on Houthi positions by Yemeni government troops.
Three days after the attack on the mosque, the Saudi-led coalition supporting the Yemeni government retaliated by resuming airstrikes near Yemen’s Houthi-held capital of Sana’a, according to the New York Times. The ensuing confrontation saw both sides launching rockets and artillery, killing and wounding at least 35 soldiers and civilians. This violent response suggests that the most salient effect of the Houthi’s offensive will be an escalation of tensions, pushing peace negotiations further out of reach. According to NPR, Peter Salisbury, a Crisis Group Yemen analyst, believes that if steps are not taken towards de- escalation, the current situation could devolve into renewed heavy fighting at levels not seen since the start of the war. Salisbury also noted that the recent uptick in violence may result in a loss of faith in peace negotiations among Houthi political elites.
Such an escalation of conflict seems inevitable as ongoing fighting between the Houthis and Saudi- backed government forces conflate with a famine that UN has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The additional fighting that this situation will engender deals a definite blow to peace prospects in Yemen--something that just months ago seemed a feasible objective. Given that this strike comes only three weeks after the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, analysts and regional actors will certainly be closely watching Yemen for any developments in the greater regional power struggle between Iran and the U.S.