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NEW DELHI: Two airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition have killed at least 15 civilians and injured 25 others at a wedding party in Dhamar province in Yemen.
The party, reports indicate, was hosted by a tribal leader known to support the Houthi rebels -- who the Saudi-led coalition is targeting.
Last month, an airstrike on a wedding party near the Red Sea port of Mocha killed at least 130 people. Last week, the Saudi led coalition denied involvement in that attack.
About 5,000 people, including 2,355 civilians, have been killed in air strikes and fighting on the ground since March this year, when Houthi fighters forced Yemen’s internationally recognised President to flee the country.
Fighting in Yemen continues as an estimated 21 million people - or 80 percent of the population - require some form of humanitarian assistance and as 1.5 million people are internally displaced.
At the time of writing, the UN announced that Houthi rebels had agreed to stop fighting and begin talks. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that the Houthis had accepted a UN Security Council resolution that calls for an end to violence, withdrawal of their forces from all areas they have seized, and a halt to undermining the political transition in the impoverished Arab nation.
“This is an important step,” Dujarric told a press briefing, adding that the UN has a “very high concern for the fate of civilians in Yemen, whether it’s due to aerial bombardments or other attacks.”
This is not the first time that a ceasefire has been negotiating, with previous attempts being short lived. In May, a humanitarian ceasefire was announced. Two weeks before that, hours after Saudi Arabia announced it was ending its air campaign, fresh airstrikes pounded the country. The Saudi government had announced that that it was ending its air campaign dubbed operation "Decisive Storm" and replacing it with a new campaign aimed at protecting civilians and preventing Houthi fighters from operating.
What happened instead was a major escalation in fighting, with Saudi and Emirati ground troops being sent in July.
In this scenario, as rebels and US and Saudi-backed government forces battle each other, the unlikely winners are groups like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda. The Islamic State in Yemen has so far claimed several attacks, including a deadly attack on two Shia mosques earlier this year that killed 137 and injured 350 people. In May, soon after, the group claimed an attack on a Houthi mosque in Sana’a that wounded 13. More recently, the group claimed a deadly attack on Shiite mosques and rebel Houthi headquarters in Sanaa in June, killing 31 people. Most recently, the group claimed an attack in early October on Yemen's government and its Gulf Arab coalition ally in the port city of Aden and on a Houthi-run mosque in the capital Sanaa that killed 22 people.
All of the above is reflective of the US’ confused policy in West Asia -- where it is fighting Sunni rebels allied to the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, but aiding Sunni forces against Shia militias in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia’s involvement, in fact, is based on the belief that the Houthis are allied with rival Iran -- a charge that Iran denies. In a recent move that has only complicated the US’ involvement in West Asia, Iran has had sanctions lifted following a deal on its nuclear programme with the P5+1, namely, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; plus Germany. The deal, many believe, marks a dramatic shift in US foreign policy in reference to West Asia, with Iran poised to emerge as the policeman in the region.
The US’ tilt toward Iran is even evinced in a statement where the US said that Saudi Arabia, its longtime ally, is probably exaggerating the links between the Houthis and Iran.
The resumption of ties between Iran and the US, however, have done little for peace in the region, with no solution to the crisis in Yemen in sight.
