Houthis

The bombing in Yemen would be halted, the Saudis announced on Tuesday, but Wednesday morning saw renewed air strikes from Saudi Arabia and ground fighting across the country. And as the violence continues, Baraa Shiban is left calling his family from London every day, hoping that they’ve survived the latest attacks.

Jamal al-Labani, who co-owned a gas station in Oakland, was trying to get his pregnant wife and young daughter out of Yemen when he was killed during fighting in the city of Aden last week.

Critics of the Houthi rebels in Yemen say they are in league with Iran, a claim the rebels deny. But no one denies the Houthis are partnered with an ally much closer to home: Yemen’s onetime dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, who remains a force in Yemen and may have billions of dollars at his disposal.

A day after Houthi forces failed to seize the airport and destroy the presidential palace in Yemen’s second city, Aden, several suicide bombers brought violence to the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital, Sanaa. Amidst the chaos, it is hard to know who orchestrated the attacks.

What’s it feel like to watch your country succumb to revolution from afar? Ask Yemeni student Ibrahim al-Hajiby. He watched the Arab Spring engulf Yemen in 2011 from his college in Minnesota, and he’s doing the same now as Houthi rebels take over the Yemeni government.