It is one of the deadliest attacks in recent years. A missile and drone strike on a key military base in southern Yemen killed at least 30 soldiers on Sunday (August 29th), according to an internationally recognized spokesperson for forces loyal to the government, who said he feared the number. casualties are increasing, with rescue teams still cleaning up the site. He also accused the Houthi rebels of carrying out the attack.
For the past seven years, the war in Yemen has pitted the forces of the government of Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, supported by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, against the rebels supported by Iran. The latter, the Houthis, control a large part of the north of the country, including the capital Sanaa.
President Hadi, himself dislodged from the capital in February 2015 – which precipitated Saudi Arabia’s military intervention – was quick to react, offering his condolences to the relatives of the victims and promising that “The Houthis will pay a high price for all the crimes they have committed against the Yemeni people”, according to the official Saba news agency.
Before the war, the Al-Anad air base, the largest in the country, located 60 kilometers north of the city of Aden, the great southern metropolis, had been used until March 2014 by US forces. charged with tracking down jihadists of the Al-Qaida organization in the Arabian Peninsula (AQPA), before being occupied by the Houthi rebellion.
It was reconquered by pro-government forces in 2015 – with the support of the Saudi-led coalition – when the latter reoccupied the territories conquered by the rebels in the south.
Economic and humanitarian crisis
This same base was already the target of a spectacular attack in 2019, when a suicide drone strike, launched from territory under Houthi control, targeted the high command of forces then loyal to President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Sunday’s attack is one of the deadliest since December 2020, when missiles targeted Aden airport, killing 26 people.
While the United Nations is still trying to achieve a cessation of hostilities, the Houthi rebels continue to demand the reopening of the airport in their capital, Sanaa, closed and under Saudi blockade since 2016, before any ceasefire or negotiations. At the diplomatic level, the appointment by the Biden administration of diplomat Timothy Lenderking as the new American special envoy for Yemen, and the adoption of a more balanced position than the unconditional support for Riyadh shown by previous administrations, has so far had no effect on the belligerents.
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