Riyadh: In the weeks before the Houthi militia fanned out along Yemen's Red Sea coast, sending its foes into a frenzied retreat, a Yemeni government commander called for help.
Lieutenant General Tariq Saleh could see that the Houthis wanted to seize his territory to reach the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, through which about 10 per cent of global trade passes. According to three Yemeni officials, he tried to warn his powerful allies in Saudi Arabia and the United States. Amid the US-Israeli war with Iran, both countries had an interest in preventing an Iran-linked militia from winning a perch beside the strait.
Yet last month, when the Houthis did just that, no one was able, or willing, to stop them. The militia's stunning triumph, which unfolded in a single night, set off a cascade of events that plunged Yemen back into a war with global reverberations. The group's capture of Mayun Island in the strait in September had already raised new fears about oil supply, and came alongside an attack on a Saudi pipeline, according to earlier reporting.
This month, the Saudi-backed Yemeni government declared war against the Houthis, widening the crisis. Saudi Arabia has begun a bombing campaign to help the government reclaim the territory it lost, with intelligence and targeting assistance from the US military. Government-allied forces claim to have made progress in the campaign.