Yemen rebels suffer setback as militiamen retake southern city
SANAA, Yemen—Yemeni militiamen have recaptured the southern city of Dali from Shiite Muslim rebels, officials and news reports said Tuesday, in the first major setback for the Houthi insurgents since the start of the Saudi-led air war against them two months ago.
Elsewhere in Yemen, however, the Houthis have expanded their territorial gains in defiance of aerial bombardment that has pummeled the country since March 26. New strikes hit at least five cities and towns on Tuesday.
The Saudi-led campaign is aimed at restoring the rule of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is sheltering in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, along with other members of his government. But the offensive, presided over by an inexperienced Saudi defense minister who is the son of King Salman, has been widely criticized as lacking clear military objectives and causing vast destruction of infrastructure and mounting civilian casualties.
At least 1,800 people have been killed in airstrikes and clashes, according to estimates by international organizations, with residents saying the actual figure is likely far higher. The U.N. children’s agency said this week that at least 135 of the dead were children.
The humanitarian crisis gripping what was already the Arab world’s poorest country is intensifying as well. The British aid agency Oxfam said Tuesday that at least 16 million Yemenis now lack access to clean water and sanitation, setting the stage for a potentially catastrophic outbreak of disease.
Yemen has been under an air and sea embargo since the start of the Saudi-led campaign, which has triggered worsening shortages of food, fuel and other crucial supplies, although a trickle of humanitarian relief has arrived. More than half a million people have been internally displaced, with many of them living in conditions of desperate hardship.
The United States, long a close Saudi ally, has been providing the Sunni Muslim coalition with logistical and intelligence support. But the Obama administration has been concerned for weeks over the rising toll of civilian deaths and injuries in Yemen.
Sunni power Saudi Arabia regards the Houthi advance as an emblem of expansionist ambitions by its Shiite Muslim rival Iran, and Yemen has joined a list of proxy Mideast battlefields that already included Syria and Libya. The Saudis launched the air war as the rebels closed in on the strategic southern port city of Aden, where Hadi had fled after the fall of his capital, Sanaa.
Dali, the city recaptured from the rebels on Tuesday, had been the scene of fierce fighting in recent weeks. The Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel on Tuesday showed images of jubilant-looking militiamen flying the separatist flag from atop a tank after they ejected the rebels from a major military base.
Dali has long been a hotbed of southern separatism, but separatist militias have joined pro-government forces in the battle against the Houthis.