Tears of Yemen: Who is fighting whom?
Who is fighting whom?
In recent months Yemen has descended into conflicts between several different groups, pushing the country "to the edge of civil war", according to the UN's special adviser.
The main fight is between forces loyal to the beleaguered President, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, and those allied to Zaidi Shia rebels known as Houthis, who forced Mr Hadi to flee the capital Sanaa in February
Republic of Yemen is an Arab country in Western Asia, occupying South Arabia, the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. Yemen is the second-largest country in the peninsula, It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, the Gulf of Adenand Arabian Sea to the south, and Oman to the east and northeast.
Although Yemen's constitutionally stated capital is the city of Sana'a, the city has been under rebel control since February 2015. Because of this, Yemen's capital has been temporarily relocated to the port city of Aden, on the southern coast. Yemen's territory includes more than 200 islands; the largest of these is Socotra.
As a result of the Yemeni revolution, the constitution of Yemen is expected to be rewritten, and then new elections held in 2014. The national government administers the capital and largest cities, but some other regions are outside of its grasp, governed by armed militant groups which expanded their control during the chaos of the 2011–12 uprising
Yemen is embroiled in a civil war between Shiite Houthi rebels fighting the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi that broke out in March 2015. At least 4,125 civilians have been killed in Yemen since then, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Monday. An agreement to cease hostilities collapsed in August, the U.N. agency said.
The U.S. military launched Tomahawk cruise missiles against radar sites in Yemen early Thursday, a senior defense official said. The strikes followed two incidents this week in which missiles were fired at a U.S. Navy ship from a rebel-controlled area of the country.
The missiles were launched from the destroyer USS Nitze at around 4 a.m. Thursday local time (9 p.m. Wednesday ET), and initial assessments were that all three coastal sites in rebel Houthi-controlled areas were destroyed, the official said. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement that President Barack Obama authorized the strikes on the recommendation of Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Joseph Dunford.
"These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships, and our freedom of navigation in this important maritime passageway," Cook said. "The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate, and will continue to maintain our freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the Bab el-Mandeb, and elsewhere around the world."
The Pentagon on Tuesday vowed to retaliate after a pair of missiles were fired at the Navy destroyer USS Mason Sunday as the ship was in international waters near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. On Wednesday, a coastal defense cruise missile was fired from a Houthi-controlled area south of Al Hudaydah at around 6 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET). None of the missiles struck the ship, and there were no injuries, U.S. officials said.
Yemen is embroiled in a civil war between Shiite Houthi rebels fighting the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi that broke out in March 2015.
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