Soon after the US president Donald Trump ordered attacks on Yemen’s Houthis ‘to free up shipping lanes’, about 31 people were killed in the region. The question is: are these attacks actually aimed at Houthis and to free up shipping lanes? Yes and no.

To get a grip on the nature and rationale of these attacks, a wee digression is called for here. If we rewind only a few days and take a detour to Ukraine and Russia, the answer may fall into perspective.

The interregnum between talks between Russia, the US and Ukraine, Zelensky’s White House visit, and then talks again were filled with, one, a barrage of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia, Russia’s huge advances and military gains in Kursk, and so on. These were the prelude and interlude to talks. What was the point? To gain a firmer hand or position in the negotiations over a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia mediated by the US. Now what relevance does this have over US attacks on Houthis? Do they actually mean anything?

Yes. Everything.

In the ‘fog of war’, battlefield wins or losses determine the nature, scope and tenor of negotiations in a given militarized conflict. What is the relevance to Yemen’s Houthis? It may be pertinent to mention here that these attacks come after the........

© Kashmir Observer