Fear strikes Yemen's 3rd largest city Taiz as Houthi rebels encircle it in new siege

CAIRO — As word came of Houthi rebels closing in, Weam Abdullah and her family decided it was time to leave their home in Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city. They had survived a yearslong siege by the rebels earlier in their country’s civil war, and they didn’t want to endure that again. They made it out just in time: Just after Abdullah, her husband and two young children left, the rebels on Oct. 4 captured a key town, largely encircling the city and cutting off most access to supplies from government-held areas. “We already feel dead, there was already despair” in the city, Abdullah said, speaking by phone to The Associated Press from a province further south. “We feel as if we are cursed. Everyone is conspiring against us even though we’re not affiliated with any party or politics.” The Iranian-backed Houthis — even as they escalate attacks on Saudi Arabia with a string of deadly attacks on the airport in the capital Riyadh — are trying to make a major gain in Yemen's 12-year-old civil war by moving on Taiz, a prize they have long sought to capture. Their assault