The war in Yemen marks a full year this March. Throughout the past year, the UN has claimed that nearly 3,000 civilians have been killed in the fighting. A majority of the deaths are claimed to have been a direct result of the bombing campaign by Saudi Arabia and their allies, but also to blame is the indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas by both Houthi and loyalist forces. This war is also seen as another battleground for a proxy war between the Sunni state of Saudi Arabia and the Shia state of Iran. The Yemeni government, Saudi Arabia, and the US have all publically claimed that Iran is providing weapons to the Houthis -- although a cable released from Wikileaks shows that US officials do not believe that Iran have supplied any weapons to the Houthis and are confident that their weaponry is either captured or purchased on the black market. Despite this, US Secretary of State John Kerry claimed that the US is aware of Iran’s support for the Houthi rebels and would not stand by as they destabilised the region.
