Yemen Rebels Say US Air Force Behind Raid That Killed 120

US Denies Attacking Northern Yemen

The US State Department today denied allegations that the US Air Force is in the process of bombing cities in Northern Yemen, insisting that “we do not have a military role in this conflict.”

The denial came after Northern Yemen’s Houthi rebels accused the US of being involved in a series of air raids which have left around 120 civilians dead in the past week.

The Saudi government has repeatedly bombed cities in the separatist region with the tacit support of the Yemeni government. Yemen has officially denied that the attacks ever happened, even when the Saudi government has spoken publicly about them.

The US has been dispatching special forces to the country in recent days to train the military to fight in the north, and has supplied the Saudi Air Force with most of its warplanes, so there is clearly a US role in this conflict, even if it isn’t direct.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.