Escalation in Yemen threatens to reignite civil war, widen tensions in Gulf region |
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Saudi Arabia bombed Yemen’s port city of Mukalla on Tuesday, targeting a shipment of weapons from the United Arab Emirates for separatist forces — a significant move in a country located along a key international trade route that threatens to bring new risks to the Persian Gulf region.
The secessionist Southern Transitional Council, STC, a group backed by the United Arab Emirates, this month seized most of the provinces of Hadramout and Mahra this month, including oil facilities.
Yemen has been mired for more than a decade in a civil war that involves a complex interplay of sectarian grievances and the involvement of regional powers.
The Iran-aligned Houthis control the most populous regions of the country, including the capital Sanaa. Meanwhile, a loose regional coalition of powers — including Saudi Arabia and the UAE — has backed the internationally recognized government in the south.
The war has created a humanitarian crisis and shattered the economy. Still, since 2022, violence had gradually declined as the sides reached something of a stalemate in the war.
The move by the UAE-backed separatists upends the political arrangement among the anti-Houthi partners.
The war in Yemen began in 2014, when the Houthis marched from their northern stronghold of Saada. They took the capital, Sanaa, and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. Saudi Arabia and the UAE entered the war the following year in an attempt to restore the government.
The new fighting pits the STC against the forces of the internationally recognized government and its allied tribes, even as they are both members of the camp fighting against the........