Yemen's Houthis enter Iran war, while US Marines arrive in region
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis have shown an ability to strike targets far beyond Yemen and disrupt shipping lanes around the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea.
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CAIRO: The risk of an expanded Iran war grew on Saturday (Mar 28) as Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis launched their first attacks on Israel since the start of the conflict, even as additional US forces reached the Middle East.
Speaking before the strike, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States expected to conclude military operations within weeks, although a new deployment of US Marines started arriving in the region. The Houthis said they would continue their operations until the "aggression" on all fronts ended.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke to Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose government hosts a meeting with the Turkish and Saudi foreign ministers on Sunday to seek to ease regional tensions.
But there is no sign of an immediate diplomatic breakthrough, and the war launched with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands of people and hitting the world economy with the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies.
On Saturday, Israel said it had carried out a wave of attacks on Tehran, targeting what the military said were infrastructure sites belonging to Iran's government.
US MILITARY PERSONNEL INJURED
Iran kept up attacks on Israel and several Gulf states after hitting an air base in Saudi Arabia on Friday and wounding 12 US military personnel, two of them seriously, in one of the most serious breaches of US air defences so far.
Washington has dispatched two contingents of thousands of Marines to the Middle East, the first of which arrived on Friday on an amphibious assault ship, the US military said on Saturday.
The US could achieve its aims without ground troops, Rubio said on Friday, but acknowledged it was deploying some to the region so Trump would have "maximum" flexibility to adjust strategy as needed.
The Pentagon is also expected to deploy thousands of soldiers from its 82nd Airborne Division.
HOUTHIS CAN STRIKE TARGETS FAR FROM YEMEN
The attack by the Houthis represented a potentially ominous new threat to global shipping, already severely disrupted by the effective closure of the critical Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for around a fifth of world oil supplies.
The group, which has launched regular missile attacks against Israel in recent years, has shown an ability to strike targets far beyond Yemen and disrupt shipping lanes around the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea, as they did in support of Hamas in Gaza after Oct 7, 2023.
On Friday, they said they were prepared to act if what they called an escalation against Iran and the "Axis of Resistance" continued in the war.
If the Houthis open a new front in the conflict, one obvious target would be the Bab al-Mandab Strait off the coast of Yemen, a key choke point for sea traffic towards the Suez Canal that could add to the turmoil in world trade.
The disruptions have already rippled across the world, adding to inflation pressures that have squeezed businesses and consumers, including those in the United States.
With crucial midterm elections approaching in November, the increasingly unpopular war has weighed on Trump's Republican Party, and he has appeared eager to end it quickly.
The war has driven a wedge between the US and its traditional allies, who have stayed on the sidelines. President Donald Trump said this lack of support had implications for NATO, the West's most important alliance.
"We would have always been there for them, but now, based on their actions, I guess we don't have to be, do we?" Trump told an investment forum in Miami on Friday. "Why would we be there for them if they're not there for us? They weren't there for us."
The charter underlying the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which has long been led by the US, says an attack on one member is an attack on all, requiring them to support each other.
But Washington's allies, which were not consulted before the US and Israeli strikes, have been notably reluctant to be drawn into a war which may still escalate further if Trump decides to deploy ground troops to try to open the Strait of Hormuz.
MORE STRIKES WHILE TRUMP SPEAKS OF NEGOTIATIONS
As the fighting has continued and the economic impact has mounted, financial markets have reacted with increasing alarm.
Stock markets tumbled sharply on Friday on fears the conflict will drag on, while the Brent crude oil benchmark topped US$112, up more than 50 per cent since the war began.
In the US, where Trump is politically vulnerable to rising fuel prices, diesel in California hit a record average high of US$7.17 a gallon, the American Automobile Association said.
Trump has threatened to hit Iranian power stations and other energy infrastructure if Iran does not open the Strait of Hormuz, a potentially devastating escalation that could trigger similar Iranian strikes against Washington's Gulf allies.
But he has extended a deadline he imposed for this week, giving Iran another 10 days to respond.
In a post in English on the social media platform X, Iran's President Pezeshkian said it would "retaliate strongly if our infrastructure or economic centres are targeted".
"To the countries of the region: If you want development and security, don't let our enemies run the war from your lands," he said.
Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey have been relaying messages between the warring sides, though Tehran has repeatedly asserted that it has not been negotiating with Washington.
Two people familiar with the back-channel efforts expressed doubt that direct talks would take place anytime soon.
As the war moved into its fifth week, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain reported missile attacks early on Saturday, with five people injured and fires reported after a missile was intercepted near Abu Dhabi's Khalifa Port, one of the Gulf's main deepwater container ports.
Kuwait International Airport was also targeted by multiple drone attacks that caused significant damage to its radar system, state news agency KUNA said on Saturday.
At least five people were killed and seven injured after a US-Israeli attack on a residential unit in Iran's northwestern city of Zanjan, Iranian media reported early on Saturday.
The Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran was also struck, media reported.
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