Yemen’s Houthis enter Iran war with attack on Israel; US Marines arrive in region

Follow our live coverage here.

CAIRO/DUBAI – The risk of an expanded Iran war grew as Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis launched on March 28 their first attacks on Israel since the start of the conflict, while additional US forces reached the Middle East.

Washington has dispatched thousands of US Marines to the Middle East in the month-old war. The first of two contingents arrived on March 27 on an amphibious assault ship, the US military said on March 28.

The Washington Post reported on March 28 that US officials said the Pentagon was preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, possibly involving raids by Special Operations and conventional infantry troops.

Whether US President Donald Trump would approve plans for deploying ground troops remained uncertain, the Post reported.

Lebanese journalists, rescue workers hit

The war, launched on Feb 28 with US and Israeli strikes on Iran, has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands and hitting the world economy with the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on March 27 the US could achieve its aims without ground troops, but that it was deploying some to the region so Mr Trump would have “maximum” flexibility to adjust strategy.

The Pentagon was also expected to deploy thousands of elite airborne soldiers from the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.

Pakistan, a potential mediator between Washington and Tehran, is to host two days of talks from March 29 with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt, seeking ways to ease regional tensions, a day after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The Israeli military said on March 29 it had targeted Tehran’s weapons manufacturing infrastructure, including dozens of storage and production sites the day before. Iranian state media reported on the same day that five people were killed in a strike on a pier in the southern port city of Bandar-e-Khamir that also destroyed two vessels.

Israel also hit targets in Lebanon, resuming its war against Iran-backed Hezbollah, killing three Lebanese journalists in a strike on a media vehicle, as well as a Lebanese soldier, Lebanon’s Al Manar TV reported. A follow-up strike on the rescue workers sent to assist them also caused fatalities.

Israel’s military said that it had targeted one of the journalists, accusing him of being part of a Hezbollah intelligence unit and saying he had reported on locations of Israeli soldiers.

Early on March 29, it said one of its soldiers had been killed during combat in Lebanon.

Iran kept up its attacks on Israel and several Gulf states. Air defences shot down a drone near the residence of the leader of the Iraqi Kurdish ruling party, Mr Masoud Barzani, in Erbil, security sources told Reuters early on March 29.

Security sources said on March 28 that another drone attack had targeted the home of the president of Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

Houthi strikes may mean new threat to shipping

The Houthis carried out a second strike on Israel, said Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree, vowing more to come.

The attacks point to a potential new threat to global shipping, already hit by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, previously a conduit for about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

The Houthis have shown an ability to strike targets far beyond Yemen and disrupt shipping lanes around the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea, as they did in support of Hamas in the Gaza war.

If the Houthis open a new front in the conflict, one target could be the Bab al-Mandab Strait off the coast of Yemen, a chokepoint for sea traffic towards the Suez Canal.

With US midterm elections due in November, the increasingly unpopular conflict has weighed on Mr Trump’s Republican Party. He has appeared eager to end it soon, while also threatening escalation.

Demonstrators took to city streets across the US on March 28 in anti-Trump rallies, described by organisers as a call to action against the war with Iran.

Mr Trump has threatened to hit Iranian power stations and other energy infrastructure if Iran does not open the Strait of Hormuz. But he has extended a deadline that he imposed this week, giving Iran another 10 days to respond.

Iranian threats to attack ships in the strait have kept most oil tankers from attempting to enter the waterway. Iran has agreed to let an additional 20 Pakistani-flagged vessels pass through the strait, with two ships permitted to transit daily, said Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.

Israel has targeted Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. The head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, which has evacuated staff from the Bushehr nuclear power plant on the Gulf coast, said the attacks threatened nuclear safety.

Mr Pezeshkian said Iran would “retaliate strongly if our infrastructure or economic centres are targeted”. REUTERS