Last night was an extremely active one in the presidential race, with multiple women coming forward to accuse Donald Trump of sexual assault. The news overshadowed a significant development in the Middle East: The United States’ announcement that it has fired missiles into Yemen.
The U.S. has been controversially supporting Saudi Arabian–backed Yemeni government forces in Yemen’s multifaction civil war for more than a year. In the past four days, the Pentagon says, missiles have twice been fired at an American warship, the USS Mason, from territory held by Houthi rebels. (None of the missiles struck the ship.) In response, the U.S. military says it targeted three rebel radar installations with cruise missiles fired from the USS Nitze, a destroyer.
At least 155 people are believed to have been killed on Saturday in Yemen’s capital, Sana, by Saudi-coalition airstrikes on a hall that was being used for the wake of the father of a Houthi ally.
Complicating the situation further, the New York Times notes, is that the Houthis are “believed to have received substantial aid from Iran, possibly including advanced weaponry.”
