How a Saudi-Led Alliance Battling an Iran-Backed Militia Devastated Yemen

How a Saudi-Led Alliance Battling an Iran-Backed Militia Devastated Yemen

New york times – April 7th 2022

By Ben Hubbard

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Months after a rebel movement aligned with Iran seized control of Yemen’s capital in 2014, Saudi Arabia pulled together a military coalition and unleashed a rain of bombs aimed at driving the rebels back to their homes in the mountains.

Instead, it set off an escalating cycle of violence that heavily damaged Yemen’s cities and killed an untold number of civilians while creating new threats to the global oil supply and maritime traffic around the Arabian Peninsula.

Seven years in, victory for Saudi Arabia, which receives extensive military aid from the United States, remains elusive. Now, the kingdom is searching for a way out of the war by backing a cease-fire and a new presidential council to lead the Yemeni government, which was announced on Thursday.

Here is a look back at how the war settled into a grinding stalemate that has shattered communities, sent starving children to depleted hospitals, and spread diseases such as cholera across Yemen in what United Nations officials have deemed one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

How did the Yemen war begin?

The conflict began as a civil war in 2014, when the Houthis, seeking to take over the country, took control of the northwest and the capital, Sana, sending the government into exile in Saudi Arabia.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/07/world/middleeast/yemen-war-saudi-arabia.html