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Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Sunday claimed the attempted strikes that targeted neighboring Saudi Arabia overnight and threatened more attacks, as fighting in the grinding civil war escalates. Houthi fighters have intensified operations against the kingdom as air strikes by the Saudi-led military coalition pound rebel positions in the north of Yemen, in a bid to stop their offensive to seize the government’s last northern stronghold of Marib. Years of war have already pushed Yemen to the brink of famine. Saudi Arabia — which has been backing the Yemeni government against the rebels since 2015 — said Saturday it thwarted a Houthi missile that targeted Riyadh. “The operation was carried out with a ballistic missile and 15 drones… targeting sensitive areas in the enemy’s capital of Riyadh,” said Houthi spokesman Yahya al-Saree, according to the rebels’ Al-Masirah TV channel. “Our operations will continue and will expand as long as the aggression and siege on our country continues.” Fragments of the missile scattered over several Riyadh neighborhoods, damaging at least one home but no casualties were reported, Saudi’s state-run Al-Ekhbariya television said. AFP correspondents in the Saudi capital reported hearing multiple loud explosions, with state television footage showing the night sky light up with a bright flash. Separately, the coalition said it had intercepted six Houthi drones targeting the kingdom, including the southern cities of Khamis Mushait and Jizan. Saree on Sunday claimed those attacks as well, warning residents in the region to “stay clear from all military airports and sites.” ‘Catastrophe’ 
The Houthis have escalated cross-border attacks on the kingdom even after the United States delisted the rebels as terrorists, reversing a decision by the administration of former president Donald Trump. The designation had been widely criticized by aid organizations, who warned it would hamper their efforts to alleviate a humanitarian crisis in Yemen. US President Joe Biden halted support to Saudi offensive operations in Yemen’s war, which he called a “catastrophe” that “has to end.” But he has also reiterated U.S. support for Saudi Arabia in defending its territory. On Sunday, in the latest violence in Yemen, five civilians including a child were killed when their home was destroyed in a bombardment near the strategic rebel-held Red Sea port of Hodeida. The warring sides traded blame over who was responsible, with the government accusing Huthis of firing a mortar bomb, and the rebels saying the explosion was caused by twin air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition. Alongside the cross-border attacks, the Houthis are pressing ahead with a offensive to seize the government-held Marib region, where some of the country’s richest oil fields are found. Hundreds of fighters from both sides have been killed in recent ferocious fighting, government source say. The Houthis now control most of the country’s north and the government has been struggling to defend Marib province and the city, which lies some 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of the rebel-held capital Sana’a. Yemen’s conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions, according to international organizations, sparking what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The UN on Monday hopes to raise $3.85 billion to support millions of civilians and prevent famine in the country. 
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Lisa Curtis, former senior National Security Council official under the Trump administration, now director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), and Michael Kugelman, senior associate for South Asia at The Wilson Center, discuss with host Carol Castiel the current state of play in Afghanistan where the Biden administration may consider extending a May 2021 deadline for US troop withdrawal given continued violence from the Taliban, among other stabilizing measures in consultation with NATO allies.
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Mexican authorities hope most of the asylum seekers living in a major encampment on the border will be allowed to enter the United States by the end of next week, according to a Mexican government source.
 
The migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico, just across the river from Brownsville, Texas, is currently home to just under 700 migrants, according to the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR). The majority are asylum seekers who have been waiting in Mexico as their cases wind through U.S. courts under a program implemented by former President Donald Trump.  
 
One week ago, President Joe Biden’s administration began permitting members of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program to enter the United States to pursue their court cases. UNHCR spokeswoman Silvia Garduno said 27 people crossed the border from Mexico Thursday and 100 did so Friday, and that the agency hopes to continue this pace in the coming days.
 
The agency, along with the International Organization for Migration, is in charge of the logistics of registering and transporting migrants from the camp to the United States.
 
The Mexican government source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the goal was for 500 migrants in the Matamoros camp to enter the United States by the end of next week.
 
Mexican authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) referred Reuters to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statement that said the registration process “will be done as quickly as possible.”
 
In Matamoros, asylum seekers expressed optimism. “We’ve just received news that tomorrow we’re leaving!” said Honduran asylum seeker Josue Cornejo in a video recorded inside the camp Friday evening, which also shows his wife and daughters wiping away tears.
 
But as one tent city begins to empty in northeastern Mexico, another has sprung up on the other side of the country. In Tijuana, migrants encouraged by the news that some asylum seekers were being allowed to enter the United States have begun to camp out near the El Chaparral port of entry, across the border from San Diego, California.
 
Advocates say about 50 tents have been put up in recent days.  
 
Biden, a Democrat, is balancing pressure from immigration advocates to unwind the hardline immigration policies of his predecessor with concerns about rising numbers of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
 
To handle an anticipated rise in crossings, CBP said in a statement on Friday that it planned to open a facility in Eagle Pass, Texas. Plans for the new facility come after CBP announced on February 9 the opening of another temporary facility in Donna, Texas, to handle border processing while the agency’s permanent center in McAllen is renovated.
 
Under U.S. law, children who arrive at the border without parents or legal guardians have to be transferred quickly out of border patrol facilities and into government-run shelters overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services.
 
Separately, HHS is also scrambling to cope with the influx of new arrivals by opening emergency shelters and trying to speed releases of migrant kids to sponsors in the United States.
 
“There are no good choices here,” Biden told reporters Friday. “The only other options are to send kids back, which is what the prior administration did.”
 
Most migrants caught at the border, including families and individual adult asylum seekers, are still being rapidly expelled at the border under a Trump-era health rule in place since last March.
 
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A medical doctor told VOA on Saturday that Myanmar security forces stopped her from treating wounded protesters during a violent crackdown by security forces, even preventing her from caring for a protester who later died in police custody under unknown circumstances.Dr. Aye Nyein Thu told VOA she was helping wounded protesters on the front lines in Mandalay, where security forces attacked residents during a demonstration at a shipyard last Saturday.At least two protesters died in the mayhem, including a 17-year-old who was shot in the head and a 36-year-old who was shot in the chest and died on the way to the hospital, according to VOA’s Burmese Service.It was among the worst violence Myanmar has seen since protests erupted following a military coup earlier this month. At least three protesters and one policeman have died in the nationwide protests, which show no signs of slowing down.Shipyard crackdownThe violence in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, began when about 500 riot police and other security forces descended on the Yadanabon shipyard, where dock workers had joined the national civil disobedience movement against the coup.Following a brief standoff with protesters near the dock, security forces began firing water cannons at the crowd and proceeded to use batons to beat protesters and other nearby civilians, including an elderly resident who was simply watching, according to Aye Nyein Thu.Aye Nyein Thu, a general practitioner, said she attempted to treat injured civilians who had been detained in a police van, including a 24-year-old man who was severely bleeding from an open wound that stretched from the front to the back of the thigh.She said she begged police to release the man so he could receive stitches to stop the severe hemorrhage.“They denied all my requests,” she said. “All I could do was cleanse the wound, stop the bleeding, and [apply] dressing.”Within days, the man had died while in security forces’ custody, she said.“His family found him in the military hospital,” according to Aye Nyein Thu.“The military doctor said the cause of death was due to COVID-19 and they immediately burned his body on that day,” she said.“I asked the family if they were shown any evidence of COVID-19. They said they [were] only shown a blood antigen test. And this test was not checked in front of the family.”She said she suspects the man was shot with live bullets, not rubber bullets, as security forces claim.International condemnationThe United Nations Country Team in Myanmar expressed “profound concern” Sunday over the Mandalay violence, noting the clashes wounded dozens and left some protesters in serious condition.”We call on security forces to refrain from violence. The use of excessive force against demonstrators by security forces must stop and the fundamental right to peaceful assembly must be respected along with other human rights such as the freedom of speech,” the U.N. statement read.The U.S. Embassy in Myanmar said it was “deeply troubled” by the fatal shooting of protesters. “No one should be harmed for exercising the right to dissent,” it added.Myanmar’s military overthrew the country’s elected government Feb. 1, citing irregularities in a November election. The military also jailed longtime democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others. It declared a one-year state of emergency.Public sentiment quickly coalesced against the military, which exercised brutal dominance over Myanmar for about 50 years before it eventually ceded some powers about a decade ago.The protests have continued daily, as has the police crackdown.Aye Nyein Thu, who spoke to VOA in between treating more wounded protesters following fresh clashes in Mandalay on Friday, said residents are not deterred by the violence.“Not at all,” she said. “If one person dies, two [more] will come [to protest]. If two die, then a whole group will come.”
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Issues in the News moderator Dan Raviv talks with panelists Linda Feldmann, Washington Bureau Chief for the Christian Science Monitor and Tom DeFrank, Contributing Editor to the National Journal, about US President Joe Biden’s recent foreign policy initiatives, including his recent virtual summit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and reviving talks with European allies over Iran’s nuclear program, among other major stories dominating the US political landscape.
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