A drone attack on Abu Dhabi’s airport killed three people. It was first time in the seven-years-long war that the Houthis had successfully targeted the UAE
The Houthis, an Iranian-backed militant group that controls part of Yemen, claimed responsibility. Since 2015 they have been fighting a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, and including the, which invaded Yemen to depose them. A week before the missile attack, the Houthis launched a drone attack on Abu Dhabi’s airport and an industrial area. Three workers from India and Pakistan were killed.
That attack triggered a ferocious wave of Saudi and Emirati air strikes in Yemen, many of which killed civilians. The deadliest, on January 21st, hit a prison in Saada, a northern city. Médecins Sans Frontières, a medical charity with employees there, said at least 82 people were killed . A separate strike on a telecoms facility in Hodeida disconnected Yemen from the internet for four days.
Houthi attacks have become common in Saudi Arabia, which shoots down missiles or drones almost every week. This was the first time the Houthis had successfully targeted the. It reflects their fury at an abrupt battlefield reversal in Yemen, engineered by the Emiratis. And it presents thewith a difficult choice: to back off, allowing the Houthis to capture an important city, or to risk more attacks that could inflict real damage on its economy.
For more than a year the main front line in Yemen has been around the city of Marib, 120km east of Sana’a, the capital. It is home to 3m people, one-third of them displaced from other regions, and to Yemen’s largest oil and gas reserves. The Houthis have thrown waves of fighters at the city, including children. Casualties have been horrific, but they have slowly worn down the city’s defenders.had little to do with this.
Last year, however, the Houthis invaded Shabwa, an energy-rich southern province. With Marib teetering and the south under threat, the coalition changed tactics. On December 25th Saudi Arabia agreed to sack the governor of Shabwa, a controversial figure affiliated with Islah, an Islamist party disliked by the Emiratis. His replacement, a tribal figure, has good relations with the, then moved thousands of its fighters from the Red Sea coast to Shabwa.
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