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Source: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-27/how-saudis-took-the-lead-in-yemen
How Saudis Took the Lead in Yemen
(Bloomberg) Eli Lake and Josh Rogin - The tripwire for the Saudi Arabian-led intervention into Yemen's civil war Thursday was Iranian-backed Houthi rebels storming the Yemeni port city of Aden, where President Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi had taken refuge earlier this month. On Thursday, Egyptian warships entered the Gulf of Aden, while Saudi jets pounded Houthi positions on the mainland. America's traditional allies in the Middle East - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Turkey and Egypt - began stitching together the military coalition in the beginning of March. At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, General Lloyd Austin, head of the U.S. Central Command, said he did not learn the Saudis were actually going to attack Yemen until an hour before the operation was launched.