Analysts say US and Israeli attacks failed to weaken rebels and are only pushing the country to the brink of famine
Late last month, a suspected US airstrike levelled four homes on the fringes of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, killing at least 11 people. A video posted by an eyewitness shows a frightened man carrying a young child on his back as they run through the darkness, warning people away, before the roar of a jet and the white flash of a blast.
Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesperson, said in late April that a punishing campaign of US airstrikes that began in mid-March had “hit over 1,000 targets, killing Houthi fighters and leaders … and degrading their capabilities”.
While the US claims to have targeted the Houthis, the intense wave of airstrikes on major cities and sites across Yemen has also claimed dozens of civilian lives, according to human rights groups and the London-based monitoring organization AirWars.
An official with US Central Command (Centcom), which oversees American military operations in Yemen, said they were “aware of the claims of civilian casualties related to the US strikes in Yemen, and we take those claims very seriously. We are currently conducting our battle-damage assessment and inquiry into those claims.”
In a statement last month, Centcom also released figures different from Parnell’s, saying US forces had struck more than 800 targets, killing “hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders”, including senior drone and missile operatives, while also destroying swaths of the group’s facilities, air defences, weapons-manufacturing facilities and missiles.
It added: “These operations have been executed using detailed and comprehensive intelligence ensuring lethal effects against the Houthis while minimizing risk to civilians.”
To Mohamed Althaibani, the 72-year-old naturalized US citizen, the airstrikes were a grim reminder that the country he has lived in for four decades views civilian life in his home country as expendable.
Then early this month, a fresh wave of Israeli strikes targeted the airport and a power station in Sana’a, hitting civilian infrastructure and residential areas.
“Many people have died – and for what? There is nothing to strike here, except people trying to live, looking for food.
“We have nothing. They claimed to bomb the power plant but it wasn’t working anyway. We’re already relying on generators,” said Althaibani.
For people across Yemen, the airstrikes are a deadly addition to a humanitarian crisis that has overwhelmed the country for more than a decade. Civilians across the country have weathered a bloody civil war as Houthi rebels battled and eventually overwhelmed government forces in the capital, followed by a decade-long campaign of airstrikes and a naval blockade from a military coalition spearheaded by Saudi Arabia.
At least 4.5 million people in Yemen are displaced by the fighting, the UN estimates, while 17 million people are in desperate need of food, including 5 million living on the brink of famine. A decision by the Trump administration to slash the US contribution to aid, particularly at the UN, has left humanitarians fearful that the cuts will further endanger civilian lives in Yemen.
Althaibani describes being swarmed by desperate people each time he leaves the house, with most unable to afford food at the local markets, where even basic goods have become increasingly expensive.
The US president abruptly announced earlier this month that the US would halt its campaign of airstrikes, claiming that the Houthis had agreed via Omani mediators to halt their attacks on key Red Sea shipping lanes off Yemen’s coast.
“The Houthis have announced to us at least that they just don’t want to fight any more … we will honour that,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “They have capitulated, but more importantly we will take their word that they won’t be blowing up ships anymore.”
The president’s words provided little reassurance to those in Yemen that the agreement with the Houthis would endure, and left many skeptical about how the Israeli bombing campaign could escalate.
While Trump halted American military campaign, the US treasury department has continued to impose waves of sanctions, including on Yemeni banks, in an effort to curb funds flowing to the Houthis and “stop Iran-backed Houthi attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea”.
Althaibani said civilians remain caught between the ongoing Israeli bombing campaign, US sanctions and the Houthis, with most unable to do more than shelter in their homes when they hear the sound of bombardments.
“They could target the Houthis if they wanted to, but why are they bombing cities if they don’t want to kill civilians?” he said. “They bombed all over the city and people were scared to flee in case they strike those areas. They decided to die in their homes. There is nothing they can do.”