An escalating ground war is taking place for the control of Yemen, the most underdeveloped state in the Middle East. Reports have abounded for weeks claiming that UAE Special Forces were on the ground inside the country fighting against the Shiite-led Ansurallah Movement (Houthis).
Some 45 UAE troops were killed on Sept. 4 in battles with the Ansurallah. Meanwhile bombing is continuing by the US-backed coalition led by the Saudi monarch and the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Attacks on Saudi troops have reportedly resulted in additional deaths. The Ansurallah forces have staged several attacks inside Saudi territory in response to the ongoing provocations against the resistance forces.
A concerted effort by the Saudi Arabian and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) led alliance encompassing numerous states throughout the Middle East and North Africa has fought fiercely to drive out the Ansurallah from the southern regions of Yemen. Reports indicate that as many as 4,500 people have been killed in the fighting which intensified on March 26 with a Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) supported bombing campaign in various regions inside the country.
For several weeks the Saudi-GCC coalition has also built an alliance of political forces in the South of the country which waged an offensive against Ansurallah positions in Aden, the strategic port city which has been bombed extensively in an effort to create a haven for U.S.-backed elements to carry out its aims of dominating the Persian Gulf and the entire regions of the Arabian Peninsula, the Horn of Africa and the Maghreb.
Resistance to Imperialist War Continues
Despite the consistent bombing of Yemen for nearly six months, the people are still fighting against imperialist domination. The failure of the air campaign to dislodge the Ansurallah forces has prompted an escalation of the ground war.
Nonetheless, the forces led by the Ansurallah in alliance with the military and political forces remaining loyal to the previous President Abduallah Ali Saleh, are inflicting casualties on the U.S.-backed forces. The increase in the deaths of military personnel from the UAE and Saudi Arabia demonstrates the degree of opposition to the Pentagon-NATO supported coalition.
In a recent interview over Press TV, Middle East expert Jalal Fairooz based in London, said of the character of the aggressive forces bombing and launching ground offensives in southern and central Yemen, “They are supplied by the United States. They are being backed by the United States. The United States agreed on this aggression in the United Nations. Actually they have tried with the Russians and the Chinese not to have a veto against this aggression when there was a resolution in the United Nations. The Americans have actually agreed with the Saudis. The Saudis have told the Americans five months and so ago that they are going to start this war against the Yemeni people and that was the case, the Americans have agreed.” (Sept. 7)
This same analyst goes on to emphasize that “it is not a surprise that the American president should send condolences to Riyadh because they are part of it. More of that, some of the airplanes which are bombing Yemen are being captained, they are being run by the Americans themselves. These ships of the United States in the Arabian Sea are guiding the airplanes where to bomb in Yemen.”
The situation is becoming critical for the imperialist-coordinated military units. Other states which are allied with the Pentagon and the CIA are now being deployed.
On Sept. 7 the Qatari government announced that it was sending troops into Yemen to shore-up the forces of the Saudi-GCC alliance. Whether this development will turn the tide of the war will remain to be seen.
Reuters press agency reported of the ongoing deployments that “Qatar has sent 1,000 ground troops to Yemen, Doha-based Al Jazeera television said, escalating Gulf Arab intervention in Yemen’s war ahead of a planned offensive against Iranian-backed Houthis holding the capital Sanaa. Qatari pilots had already joined months of Saudi-led air strikes on the Houthi militia, which seized Sanaa a year ago and then advanced across much of the country, forcing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile in March.” (Sept. 7)
This same article said that imperialist-allied forces had “‘crossed the al-Wadia border post’ between Saudi Arabia and Yemen and was heading to Marib – where Hadi loyalists have been preparing for the thrust toward Sanaa. Saudi-owned al Arabiya satellite network also said Qatari and Saudi reinforcements had crossed the frontier.”
Reuters also says “The first reported involvement of Qatari ground forces in Yemen coincided with an intensification of the conflict a few days after a rocket strike in Marib that killed dozens of soldiers including Saudis and Emiratis. Saudi coalition forces on Sunday(Sept. 6) carried out repeated air raids on Houthi targets and allied troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in apparent retaliation.”
War with Iran Resumes Even Though Nuclear Agreement Has Been Signed
The nuclear agreement with Iran is expected to become official with the recent vote in the Senate. However, the war against Iran and its allies within the region continues in Yemen, Syria Iraq and Lebanon.
Since March 26 and the new phase of the U.S. war against Yemen, the administration of President Barack Obama has provided diplomatic cover for the efforts to cripple and destroy the resistance forces that are allied with Tehran. The Obama government continues to bomb neighboring Syria under the guise of fighting the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) after creating the conditions for the weakening of President Bashar al-Assad.
At the same time, Iraq which was invaded in both 1991 and 2003 and occupied for eight years is also being bombed under the same pretext. The burgeoning migrant crisis impacting tens of millions is a direct result of the war policies of successive U.S. administrations.
The anti-war movement in the U.S. and Western Europe must take up the challenge of opposing imperialist intervention by explaining that it is their own governments which must accept responsibility for the worse humanitarian refugee crisis since the conclusion of World War II. These wars of regime-change must end in order to bring peace to the world and create the conditions for genuine reconstruction of the economies of the West as well as those in the oppressed nations.
Inside the U.S. and Western Europe unemployment, poverty and racial tensions are escalating. The militarization of the police from Ferguson and Baltimore to Detroit and New York City is the domestic reflection of a policy of total domination of the world.
These factors provide the basis for the linking of internal struggles for jobs, guaranteed incomes, and for the end to police terrorism, with the movements against war and imperialism. The working class and the oppressed within the imperialist states cannot be fully liberated until the repression, oppression and exploitation of the peoples of the world is halted.
