On January 17, 2022, three fuel tanker trucks exploded in the industrial Musaffah region near the new Abu Dhabi International Airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), following a drone attack by Houthi rebels of Yemen. Houthi is an Islamist political armed movement which is backed by Iran to fight the coalition of Gulf countries led by Saudi Arabia.
During the attack, one Pakistani national and two Indian nationals lost their lives. Besides, six others had reported injuries ranging from light to media, said Dubai-based WAM news agency. “Initial investigations found parts of a small plane that could possibly be a drone at both sites that could have caused the explosion and the fire,” the police said in a statement.
#Yemen‘s Iran-aligned #Houthi movement claimed responsibility for an alleged #drone attack on the United Arab Emirates that occurred Monday morning.https://t.co/82AbSm8vAM
— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) January 17, 2022
Four days later on January 21, 2022, a Saudi Arabia-led coalition retaliated by conducting an airstrike on a detention centre in Saada in Yemen. Reportedly, about 100 people were killed and wounded in the Houthi stronghold of Saada. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) chief Ahmed Mahat reported, “There are many bodies still at the scene of the airstrike, many missing people. It is impossible to know how many people have been killed. It seems to have been a horrific act of violence.”
Another airstrike was carried out by the Saudi-led coalition on a telecommunications facility in Hudaydah, which led to the death of 3 children. The incident led to a nationwide internet outage in Yemen.
BBC had reported that Saudi Arabia acknowledged the military action in Hudaydah but not the one in Saada.
The Background of the Yemen conflict
The modern State of Yemen came into existence in 1990 through the unification of the Yemeni Arab Republic (backed by the US and Saudi Arabia) and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (backed by the USSR). Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled the Yemeni Arab Republic in the North since 1978 became the leader of the unified nation. His autocratic tenure was marred by allegations of corruption.
The Houthi movement (also called Ansar Allah), an Islamist movement comprising of Zaydi Shiites from the Houthi tribe, began its political activism against Saleh in 2003 for supporting the US Invasion of Iraq. The Houthis were concentrated mainly in the northern part of Yemen and had remained a force of cultural/religious revivalism since the 1980s.
Interestingly, Houthis were against Saleh during his tenure as Yemen’s President. They carried out armed rebellion against him on 6 occasions between 2004 to 2010. After the Arab Spring of 2011 (anti-government uprising and armed rebellion) in Yemen, Saleh had to resign and cede power to his Vice-President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. He then joined hands with the same Islamist outfit that he fought as President of Yemen.
The decision was well-calculated since Saleh wanted to make inroads to the power corridors. The political transition to the new ruler of Yemen was distraught with challenges including corruption, unemployment, food security. Houthis took advantage of Hadi’s weakness and made inroads to the city of Sanaa in September 2014 and seized complete control by January 2015.
The intervention by Saudi Arabia -led coalition
Saleh had the support of members of Yemen’s security forces, the political establishment, tribal networks, which made it easier for Houthis to gain access to power. Ordinary Yemenis also supported the Islamists after being ‘disillusioned’ by the political transition process from Saleh to Hadi.
Houthis then attempted to take control over the entire country and forced President Hadi to flee in March of 2015. The Houthi movement had the backing of Iran, a Shia majority country and arch-rival of Saudi Arabia. Iran has been accused of providing military support to Houthis and using them as its proxy for shared geopolitical interests.
It implied an increasing threat to Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity on its southern border. Yemen holds strategic importance as the Arab nation is situated on a strait that links Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. As such, it serves as the world’s pass for oil and gas shipments. The Kingdom thus formed a multinational coalition, comprising of 8 Sunni majority Arab nations including Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Sudan, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to put an end to the political impasse and restore Hadi’s government.
It must be mentioned that Hadi had written a letter to the United States, seeking permission to allow coalition forces to avert Houthi aggression. “(Authorise) willing countries that wish to help Yemen to provide immediate support for the legitimate authority by all means and measures to protect Yemen and deter the Houthi aggression,” read the letter by Hadi to UN Security Council. The then Yemen President also wrote to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Arab League, seeking intervention.
The Saudi-led coalition received intelligence and logistical support from European powers such as the UK, France and also the United States. In 2018, the coalition was expanded to include Pakistan and Eritrea. Saleh, who had supported the Houthis after his ouster as president, was killed by the same Islamist outfit for switching his support to the Saudi coalition in 2017.
In July 2018, President Hadi told the BBC that he did not regret seeking help from the Saudi-led coalition. He said, “I do not regret this decision at all. Otherwise, we would not have liberated parts of the country from Aden to [the eastern province of] Al-Mahra. Without the support of the coalition, these areas would still be under the control of the Houthis.”
He further added, “If Decisive Storm (name of the military operation) had not happened, it would have been the beginning of a major civil war lasting even longer than the conflict in Somalia [that began in 1991 and remains ongoing].”
The aftermath of Saudi intervention
Interestingly, the radical Islamist Houthi movement was designated as a terrorist group by Donald Trump prior to leaving the Oval office. The decision was, however, reversed after Joe Biden became the US President. Following the intervention of the Saudi-led coalition, it was expected that the political crisis would be resolved within a few weeks. But, the ‘military stalemate’ has lasted for over 7 years now.
The coalition helped free much of South Yemen in August 2015 but failed to regain territories of Saana and north-western Yemen. In 2018, major airstrikes were conducted to capture the city of Hudaydah. The forces were joined by the loyalist of former President Saleh. A ceasefire was declared by the warring sides after 6 months of intense fighting. In 2021, the Houthis carried out attacks in the Northern Marib, which is an oil-rich province under government control.
During the 7-year period, Houthis had targeted civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia with ballistic missiles and drones. The ongoing crisis has provided a fertile ground to Islamist terror outfits such as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Islamic State group (IS), who occasionally carry out attacks to further destabilise the region.
The conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen is widely regarded as a part of an intense power tussle between the Sunni-majority Saudi and Shia-ruled Iran. Besides, Yemen’s strategic location, the strait connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, through which much of the world’s oil shipment passes, is also considered as a major reason for the continuing conflict.
In December 2020, it was estimated that over 2.33 lakh people died from both direct and indirect causes of the crisis in Yemen. As per the UN, about 3450 children have died so far. It has been described as the ‘worst humanitarian crisis’ in the world.
Islamists upset after Saudi Arabia vows to move away from extremism
Unlike his predecessors, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quickly realised the need of the country to reduce dependency on oil and diversify it to other sectors such as health, education, recreation and tourism. In an interview with CBS News, he said, “(Before 1979) We were living a normal life like the rest of the Gulf countries, women were driving cars, there were movie theatres in Saudi Arabia.”
In December last year, the Kingdom organised a giant party in the middle of the desert. For the first time, men and women were allowed to assemble and dance together without segregation. Since the rise of the Crown Prince to the power corridors, women empowerment has been one of the primary goals of the Saudi regime. For instance, women were allowed the right to drive in June 2018, ending the decades-long prohibition on driving.
In December 2021, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs of Saudi Arabia directed the preachers of the mosques to dedicate the Friday sermon towards warning the Saudi people against the Tablighi and Da’wah groups. Minister of Islamic Affairs, Dr Abdullatif Al_Alsheikh had given a direction to the Mosques in Saudi Arabia to reserve the Friday sermon for warning the people against the partisan groups of Tablighi Jamat and Da’wah existing in the country.
The progressive decision by the Saudi regime to distance itself from orthodoxy and extremism has not gone down well with Indian Islamists. On Saturday (January 22), controversial journalist Rana Ayyub had posted a tweet attacking Saudi Arabia for launching a military operation against Yemen. She was then slammed on Twitter by Saudi netizens in response to that, accusing her of supporting terrorism.
Yemen is bleeding and there is nobody to stop the bloodthirsty Saudis. These are people who call themselves the custodians of Islam. As a Muslim I am ashamed that these savages are guardians of the holy mosque. The world CANNOT stay silent thru this genocide #YemenUnderAttack
— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) January 22, 2022
“Yemen is bleeding and there is nobody to stop the bloodthirsty Saudis,” Rana Ayyub had tweeted on Saturday, saying that as a Muslim she is ashamed that “these savages are guardians of the holy mosque”. After Rana Ayyub posted the tweet, several Saudi netizens responded to her saying that their govt is supporting a recognised government, while Ayyub was supporting an Islamist terror group trying to overthrow that government.
Saudi engineer Gassan called it fake news and said that Saudi Arabia has launched military operations in Yemen as part of a coalition of over ten countries in response to a direct request from the legitimate government of Yemen. “We supporting legitimate and you supporting terrorists”, he added. One Twitter user Abu Sultan called her a “fu**ing liar”, saying all she “said are bullshit”. The user noted that this is why Ayyub had disabled replies to her tweets.
