Wikileaks reveals documents on US secret interference in Yemen

Wikileaks has today published over 500 documents from the United States’ diplomatic mission in Yemen that purport to prove that the US secretly interfered in Yemeni affairs, in the whistleblowing organisation’s latest series of leaks.

The “Yemen Files” are comprised of 200 leaked emails and 300 PDF files ranging from 2009 until just before the US Embassy in Sana’a was closed in February 2015 due to the continued unrest. This time frame covers the whole of Hillary Clinton’s term as Secretary of State until the first two years of Secretary John Kerry’s tenure.

The leaks expose the way in which the US partook in the arming, training and funding of Yemeni forces in the years building up to the March 2015 war.

Yemen, which is the Arab world’s poorest country, has been wracked by chaos since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Shia Houthis overran its capital city Sana’a and other parts of the country.

Yemen has been locked in a bitter battle between Houthi rebels allied with forces loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh against government forces led by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, along with local tribes and resistance forces backed by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition. Nearly 10,000 people have been killed as a result of the conflict with millions displaced as a result of the fighting.