Saudis Repel Border Attack from Houthis as Conflict Worsens

While the Saudi air campaign continues — and has even expanded since the announcement of a new phase of the intervention — Houthi and Saudi forces clashed along the border in Saudi Arabia’s Najran Province. At least three Saudi soldiers and possibly “dozens” of Houthis were killed as Houthi forces were repelled from an attack on a border checkpoint. In Aden, fighting has intensified between the Houthis and local militias. “Women and children have been burnt in their homes, civilians have been shot in the streets or blown up by tank fire,” one resident told Reuters. Farther east, in Shabwa Province, a group that identifies itself as Yemen’s branch of the Islamic State released a video of an attack in mid-April in which 14 Yemeni soldiers were executed.

The United Nations has warned that the country is nearing collapse as reserves of food and fuel are depleted. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that fuel shortages will soon prevent the delivery of critical humanitarian aid and called on Saudi Arabia to allow the resumption of oil imports. Lines for gas in Sanaa now require days-long waits, and residents in Aden say they only have access to rice for food. At least 300,000 people have been displaced by the war. “It’s insanity,” an Oxfam representative told the New York Times, who added that the parties to the conflict are “condemning the whole country to die.”

Police in Istanbul Clash with Protesters

Turkish police are using tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters marking International Worker’s Day (also called May Day). Turkish media have reported that 20,000 police are in Istanbul today and the government has closed Taksim Square to traffic and all but a few state-sanctioned protesters. The location was the site of a deadly protest in 1977 in which 34 people were killed, as well as some of the Gezi Park protests in 2013. A crowd of protesters gathered in the nearby Beskitas neighborhood is attempting to march to the square and has been blocked by police. Other protests are occurring around the country.

Headlines

• Saudi officials said they are implementing plans to restructure the state oil company ARAMCO and separate it from the government’s oil ministry; the news comes after new changes to the royal line of succession and a cabinet reshuffle earlier this week.

• Hundreds of people protested police brutality against Israel’s Ethiopian Jewish community in Jerusalem yesterday, leading to injuries and arrests.

• The U.S. Navy will begin escorting U.S.-flagged merchant vessels in the Persian Gulf to deter Iranian naval forces from interfering in shipping lanes.

• In his first visit to Gaza since being appointed in February, U.N. envoy Nickolay Mladenov called for unity among Palestinian political groups and for Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza.

• The U.S. Congress is weighing legislation that would assert its role in approving any nuclear deal with Iran, but proposed amendments to the bill threaten to undermine a tenuous bipartisan arrangement.

-J. Dana Stuster

SALEH AL-OBEIDI/AFP/Getty Images