Washington: Saudi Arabia announced on Thursday that it had begun a military campaign in Yemen in a bid to restore the collapsed government of President Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Saudi government-owned al-Arabiya television said that planes from Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain were involved in the air campaign and that Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan and Sudan were willing to add ground troops to 150,000 being sent by Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi announcement came during a rare news conference in Washington by Adel al-Jubeir, the kingdom's ambassador to the United States. Mr Jubeir said that the Saudis were determined to blunt the advance of Shiite Houthi rebels, who have overrun Yemen's capital and forced the US-backed government to flee.
Mr Jubeir said that US military forces were not involved in the air strikes. However, a US official told Reuters the US was supporting Saudi Arabia's military operation, without elaborating. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that Saudi Arabia coordinated with the United States ahead of the operation.
People gather at the site of an air strike in Yemen's capital, Sanaa.Credit: Reuters
The offensive came as fighters and army units allied with the Houthi movement threatened to overrun the southern port of Aden, where Mr Hadi had gone into hiding.
Yemen shares a long and often disputed border with Saudi Arabia, a major US ally, and the Saudis had been reported to be massing forces on the Yemen frontier as Mr Hadi's last redoubt in Aden looked increasingly imperilled.
The rapid advances by the president's opponents included the seizure of a military air base and an aerial assault on his home.
There were unconfirmed reports that Mr Hadi had fled the country by boat for Djibouti, the tiny Horn of Africa nation across the Gulf of Aden which hosts a US naval base.
Yemenis run from gunfire at an army base in Aden.Credit: Reuters
The region's most impoverished country, Yemen has been a central theatre of the US fight against al-Qaeda, and its possible collapse presents complex challenges for the Obama administration as it struggles to deal with instability and radicalism in the Middle East.
By Wednesday morning, Houthi forces had seized al-Anad air base, which until recently had been used by US counterterrorism forces, about 55 kilometres from Mr Hadi's refuge in Aden, the country's second-largest city.
Saudi Ambassador to the United States Adel Al-Jubeir at a news conference in Washington March 25, 2015. Credit: Reuters
At nightfall, there were reports that Houthi forces were fighting around the Aden airport, though forces loyal to Mr Hadi were counter-attacking.
The Houthis, a militant group made up of Zaydi Shiites from northern Yemen, receive support from Iran.
But they are also collaborating with Yemeni forces still loyal to Mr Hadi's predecessor, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was ousted after more than 40 years in power amid the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 and 2012 but now appears to be orchestrating a comeback.
New York Times, Reuters