On April 25 U.S. airstrikes targeted a migrant center in Saada, killing 68 migrants and wounding nearly 50 others. These airstrikes against Yemen have been intensifying since mid-March, following the launch of Operation Rough Rider by the Trump administration, which aims to secure maritime trade in the strategic Red Sea area connecting the Suez Canal and international supply chains.
The increase in civilian casualties reflects the violence of the strikes, while the US Central Command threatens “to intensify pressure until the objective is achieved, which remains the restoration of freedom of navigation and American deterrence in the region,”as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
According to the Yemen Data Project, an independent organization, the US Operation Rough Rider had caused 500 civilian casualties, including 158 deaths and 342 wounded, as of April 22. This toll continues to rise. In addition to the migrant center, on the night of April 27, new U.S. strikes left eight dead, including children and women, in the Thaqban area, on the outskirts of Sanaa. Not to mention the victims in Amran.
The military escalation in Yemen is part of a deeper dynamic of U.S. pressure against Iran. The recent strikes come precisely as the Iranian nuclear issue is at the heart of negotiations. With the reactionary Iranian regime weakened after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship in Syria and the retreat of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the United States is targeting one of the Islamic Republic’s last allies to put pressure on Khamenei.
As the United States bombards the country, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are reportedly preparing a military offensive led by loyalist Yemeni groups, aimed at pushing back the Houthis and shifting the balance of power, as the truce in place since April 2022 remains fragile. The ultra-reactionary Saudi monarchy fears that the instability caused by the rebels will threaten its oil infrastructure and harm its daunting Vision 2030 economic diversification project.
This Saudi-led military offensive has been explicitly supported by the United States. According to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. officials confirm that “Yemeni [pro-government] militias are planning a ground offensive against the Houthis in an attempt to take advantage of a US bombing campaign that has degraded the militant group’s capabilities.” They add that “the United States is willing to support a ground operation led by local forces,” while denying its involvement in the ongoing preparations. This would involve strengthening the capabilities of local factions loyal to the internationally-recognized government, including private militias supported by the U.S., so that they can assume responsibility for security in the territory.
This U.S. offensive is part of a long history of imperialist interventions in Yemen. In 2015, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, supported by the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, intervened militarily to restore Hadi’s government, triggering a civil war with catastrophic humanitarian consequences.
The current relentless persecution of the Houthis cannot be separated from the genocidal war waged by Israel in Gaza, which is also supported by all the imperialist powers. Behind both conflicts lies the goal of imperialist control of the Middle East, its resources, and its strategic trade routes.
Faced with this imperialist offensive of unprecedented violence, which has already caused hundreds of civilian victims and threatens to plunge Yemen back into the horror of a civil war, the mobilization of the popular classes and workers of the region, independently of the reactionary leaderships of the so-called “axis of resistance,” constitutes the only way to bring a progressive solution to the situation, to drive out U.S. imperialism and its allies, and put an end to the genocide in Gaza.
Originally published in Révolution Permanente on April 30.