Riyadh enters the fray

摘要

Saudi arabia was only going to tolerate the advances of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels for so long. Early on the morning of March 26th the kingdom said it had started a military operation in neighbouring Yemen to push back the Houthis and reinstate the "legitimate government" of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The first air strikes hit Houthi positions in Sana'a, the Yemeni capital, including the airport and the group's political headquarters. They also targeted military bases controlled by loyalists of Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's former president, who was ousted in 2011 and has been backing the Houthis, a Shia militia that occupied Sana'a in September and has rapidly taken over swathes of the country. Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador to America, says the strikes are the opening salvo in a campaign involving ten coun-tries-mainly Gulf states as well as Jordan and Egypt. America said it was providing logistical and intelligence support.