Yemen's Houthis lash out after air strike
with missile attack
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[October 10, 2016]
By Mohammed Ghobari
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen's Houthi movement
fired ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia, and the United States said a
failed missile attack from Houthi-controlled areas targeted one of its
warships, two days after an apparent Saudi-led air strike killed 140
Yemenis.
The air strike ripped through a wake attended by some of the country's
top political and security officials, outraging Yemeni society and
potentially galvanizing powerful tribes to join the Houthis in opposing
a Saudi-backed exiled government.
Riyadh is leading a coalition of Arab states which began launching air
strikes in Yemen 18 months ago to restore to power ousted President Abd
Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi, who was driven from the capital two years ago by
the Houthis.
The Houthis, fighters from a Shi'ite sect that ruled a thousand-year
kingdom in northern Yemen until 1962, are allied to Hadi's predecessor
Ali Abdullah Saleh. They have the support of many army units and control
most of the north including the capital Sanaa.
The war has killed at least 10,000 people and brought parts of Yemen, by
far the poorest country in the Arabian peninsula, to the brink of
starvation. Both sides accuse the other of war crimes.
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The Saudis say the Houthis are stooges of their enemy Iran. The Houthis
say they have led a national revolt against a corrupt government, and
the country is now being punished by its rich and aggressive Gulf Arab
neighbors with U.S. political and military support.
Riyadh has denied responsibility for Saturday's air strike, one of the
bloodiest incidents of the war.
A U.S. military spokesman said two missiles were fired from Houthi-held
territory at the USS Mason, a guided missile destroyer sailing north of
the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait. Neither missile hit the ship.
The Houthis denied firing at the U.S. ship.
The Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted a missile fired by the
Houthis at a military base in Taif in central Saudi Arabia, striking
deeper then ever before in the latest in a series of more than a dozen
missile attacks.
A missile was also fired at Marib in central Yemen, a base for
pro-government militiamen and troops who have struggled to advance on
the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa.
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![](../images/101016PICS/news_q23.jpg)
Smoke rises at a community hall where Saudi-led warplanes struck a
funeral in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, October 9, 2016.
REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
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Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies have launched thousands of air
strikes against the Houthis during the 18-month war, and have
imposed a naval blockade that has restricted trade to a country that
depends on imported food to feed itself.
This month the Houthis launched a missile at a ship from the United
Arab Emirates and at government positions on a island at the
strategic 20 km (12 mile)-wide Bab al-Mandab strait, which controls
the mouth of the Red Sea, on the main shipping route from the Indian
Ocean to Europe through the Suez Canal.
Among the dead in the funeral bombing on Saturday were notables
straddling the country's many political divides, threatening to
harden the will of powerful armed tribes around the capital who may
make common cause with the Houthis.
"Despite all the massacres that have happened in this war, attacking
a funeral is unprecedented and crosses a major red line in Yemeni
culture," said Farea al-Muslimi, an analyst at the Sanaa Centre for
Strategic studies.
"The air strikes killed powerful people, and their tribes and
families will be drawn closer to the Houthis as they all try to
retaliate."
(Reporting By Noah Browning and Mohammed Ghobari, editing by Sami
Aboudi and Peter Graff)
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