OIL PRICES RISE
The escalated fighting in Yemen sent world oil prices spiking Thursday. Yemen plays a crucial geographic role in the world’s oil supply because tankers that go through the Suez Canal have to navigate around the country. The turmoil caused the price of benchmark U.S. crude to jump $2.22, closing at $51.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, rose $2.71 to $59.19 a barrel in London.
Associated Press
The turmoil in Yemen grew into a regional conflict Thursday, with Saudi Arabia and its allies bombing Shiite rebels allied with Iran, while Egyptian officials said a ground assault will follow the airstrikes.
Iran denounced the Saudi-led air campaign, saying it “considers this action a dangerous step.”
The military action turned impoverished and chaotic Yemen into a new front in the rivalry between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran.
Yemen’s U.S.-backed president, Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled the country Wednesday as the rebels known as Houthis advanced on his stronghold in the southern port of Aden, arrived by plane Thursday in Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh, Saudi state TV reported.
Starting before dawn, Saudi warplanes pounded an air base, military bases and anti-aircraft positions in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and flattened a number of homes near the airport, killing at least 18 civilians, including six children. Another round followed in the evening, again rocking the city.
Rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi angrily accused the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel of launching a “criminal, unjust, brutal and sinful” campaign aimed at invading and occupying Yemen.
“Yemenis won’t accept such humiliation,” he said in a televised speech, calling the Saudis “stupid” and “evil.”
The Houthis, who have taken over much of the country, mobilized thousands of supporters to protest the airstrikes, with one speaker lashing out at the Saudi-led coalition and warning that Yemen “will be the tomb” of the aggressors.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters that President Barack Obama had authorized logistical and intelligence support for the strikes, but that the U.S. was not joining with direct military action.
In the air assault codenamed “Operation Decisive Storm,” Saudi Arabia deployed some 100 fighter jets, 150,000 soldiers and navy units, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV reported. Also involved were aircraft from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan and Egypt, though it was not clear which carried out actual strikes.
Once the airstrikes have weakened the rebels and their allies in the military forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Egyptian, Saudi and other forces plan a ground invasion of Yemen.
The assault will come across the border from Saudi Arabia and in landings on Yemen’s Red and Arabian sea coastlines, according to three Egyptian military and security officials.
The aim is not to occupy Yemen but to weaken the Houthis and their allies until they enter negotiations for power-sharing, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the plans with the press.
Saudi Arabia and fellow Sunni-led allies in the Gulf and the Middle East view the Houthi takeover as an attempt by Iran to establish a proxy state on the kingdom’s southern border. Iran and the Houthis deny that Tehran arms the rebel movement, though it says it provides diplomatic and humanitarian support.
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