U.S.-backed ground war intensifies in Yemen

Sept. 7 — An escalating ground war is taking place for control of Yemen, the most underdeveloped state in the Middle East. Reports claim that United Arab Emirates Special Forces have been on the ground in the country fighting against the Shiite-led Ansurallah Movement, also called Houthis.

Some 45 UAE troops were killed on Sept. 4 in battles with the Ansurallah. Meanwhile, bombing is continuing by the U.S.-backed coalition led by the Saudi monarchy and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Saudi troops have also reportedly been killed. The Ansurallah forces have attacked inside Saudi territory in response to ongoing provocations against the resistance forces.

The Saudi- and GCC-led alliance, encompassing numerous states throughout the Middle East and North Africa, has made a concerted effort to drive out the Ansurallah from Yemen’s southern region for nearly six months. As many as 4,500 people have been killed in the fighting, which intensified last March 26 with a Pentagon- and CIA-supported bombing campaign in various regions of the country.

For several weeks the Saudi-GCC coalition has also built an alliance of political forces in the south of the country that waged an offensive against Ansurallah positions in Aden. This strategic port city has been bombed extensively in an effort to create a haven for U.S.-backed elements to dominate the Persian Gulf and the entire region, including the Arabian Peninsula, the Horn of Africa and North Africa.

Resistance to imperialist war

Despite the consistent bombing of Yemen for nearly six months, the people still resist 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 previous President Abduallah Ali Saleh, are punishing the U.S.-backed forces. The increase in the deaths of military personnel from the UAE and Saudi Arabia demonstrates the intense opposition to the Pentagon/NATO-supported coalition.

In a Sept. 7 interview on Press TV, Middle East expert Jalal Fairooz based in London said 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.”

This 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 allied with the Pentagon and the CIA are now deploying their militaries.

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 remains to be seen.

Reuters press agency reported Sept. 7, “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.”

The same article noted 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 added, “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.”

War with Iran resumes despite nuclear deal

The nuclear agreement with Iran is expected to become official with the upcoming Senate vote. However, the war against Iran and its allies in 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 destroy the Ansurallah resistance forces allied with Tehran. The Obama government continues to bomb neighboring Syria under the guise of fighting the so-called Islamic State after creating the conditions for the weakening of President Bashar al-Assad.

At the same time, Iraq, which the U.S. 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 these 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 worst humanitarian refugee crisis in Europe since the conclusion of World War II.

In 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 is the domestic reflection of a policy of total domination of the world.

These factors provide the basis for linking internal struggles for jobs, guaranteed incomes and the end to police terrorism with the movements against war and imperialism. The working class and the oppressed in the imperialist states cannot be fully liberated until the repression, oppression and exploitation of the peoples of the world is halted.