America steps up bombing the Houthis but lacks a clear strategy
It will be hard to secure the Red Sea without driving the rebel group from power in Yemen
WHEN America started bombing the Houthis on March 15th, your correspondent messaged a diplomat: was this déjà vu or something new? The group, a Shia militia in Yemen, has been bombed so many times by so many people that the diplomat needed clarification. Déjà vu from when Joe Biden bombed them last year? From when Israel did so months later? Or from when a Saudi-led coalition began bombing almost a decade earlier?
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This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Many bombs, little thought”
From the April 5th 2025 edition
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