More than 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen’s civil war. This week, the United States became more directly involved in the conflict, which already included Saudi Arabia and insurgents with ties to its sectarian rival, Iran.
Since March 2015, the Saudis and their allies have waged a military campaign against the Houthi rebels.
The Houthis, a Yemeni insurgent group, took over Sana, the capital, in 2014 and unseated the government months later with the help of rogue army units. They have since secured control of a large part of the country.
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While Yemen is mostly Sunni, the Houthis are a Shiite group that has been fighting the government on and off since 2004. They have ties to Iran, but the rebels have denied claims by Saudi Arabia and its allies that they receive military support from Tehran.
The United States has helped the Saudi-led military coalition from the beginning.
Saudi-led coalition airstrikes, March 2015 to October 2016
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The Americans are providing targeting intelligence and refueling Saudi warplanes involved in bombing rebel positions. But coalition strikes have also destroyed hospitals, markets and residential neighborhoods, killing large numbers of civilians.
Last Saturday, airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition killed more than 100 people at a funeral in Sana, shown above. More than 10,000 people have been killed in the war, according to the United Nations, and the threat to civilians has increased since the collapse of peace talks in August.
An American warship recently fired cruise missiles at radar installations in Yemen.
After the Houthi rebels launched two failed missile attacks at an American warship in the Red Sea, another American vessel destroyed three radar installations in Yemen.
It was the first direct military engagement by the United States in the civil war in Yemen. The Obama administration has been pushing for a deal to end the increasingly deadly conflict while quietly supporting the Saudi-led air campaign against the rebels.
There is a critical lack of health services and food in the country.
The aid group Doctors Without Borders withdrew from six hospitals in northern Yemen after several of its facilities were attacked in Saudi-led coalition airstrikes.
Food packages from relief agencies, like those pictured above in Sana, are vital for many Yemenis contending with the threat of starvation, malnutrition and a critical lack of water and sanitation.
The chaos in Yemen has given extremist groups an opportunity to step up operations.
The Qaeda branch in Yemen is one of the terror group’s most committed to plotting attacks in the West. The United States has been using drones to strike against the branch for years. In August, the Islamic State claimed a suicide attack in southern Yemen that killed more than 50 military recruits.
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