House Votes to Withdraw U.S. From War in Yemen

The resolution is similar to one that passed the Senate in December, but it will need to go before the Senate again before heading to Mr. Trump's desk because that earlier measure expired when the new session of Congress began Jan. 3.

Some House Democrats crossed party lines to support GOP-authored language stating the U.S. is authorized to continue intelligence operations with any nation—leaving open the door for at least some coordination with Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. role in Yemen has come into sharper focus on Capitol Hill since Saudi operatives killed the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October. The Central Intelligence Agency has "medium-to-high confidence" that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally targeted Mr. Khashoggi, authorized the operation against him and probably ordered his death, according to a highly classified CIA assessment reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Lawmakers in both parties have been frustrated over what they see as the White House's reluctance to hold Crown Prince Mohammed accountable for the killing. Rep. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.), who is the sponsor of the House measure that passed Wednesday, said the murder of Mr. Khashoggi gave greater urgency to the war in Yemen.

"I think the Yemen situation is a broader humanitarian crisis. I think what the Khashoggi murder did was open a lot of people's eyes to the humanitarian-rights abuses of the Saudi regime," Mr. Khanna said. "If you think [the death of] Khashoggi was horrific, imagine that kind of tactics being applied to women and children by the hundreds of thousands in Yemen."

The vote Wednesday, and the forthcoming vote in the Senate, follow in the wake of the White House missing a statutory deadline Friday to deliver to Congress its opinion on whether the crown prince was involved in the Khashoggi murder.

"I don't know what's taking so long. I mean I think it's pretty obvious that the crown prince had to have been in involved in this" Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday.

But Mr. Rubio said he doesn't support using the Yemen matter as a way of punishing the Saudis. "I think that's separate—it has to be from a point of pragmatism—from the issue of Mr. Khashoggi and his murder," Mr. Rubio said, citing the U.S. military support in Yemen as a way to counter Iran's influence in the region.

U.S. aircraft have supported the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen by providing aerial refueling operations but the U.S. ended that assistance late last year, saying the Saudis had developed their own refueling capabilities.

The U.S. doesn't have permanently based troops in Yemen, the Pentagon said, but deploys small teams of special-operations forces to support specific military missions, including operations against Islamic State or al Qaeda targets. In addition, a small contingent of American military personnel is based in an operations center in Saudi Arabia to advise Saudi forces, in part to minimize civilian casualties.

The U.S. also provides intelligence support to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The resolution would prohibit the military from providing future in-flight fueling for non-U.S. aircraft conducting missions as part of the conflict in Yemen but wouldn't affect any military operations that are directed at al Qaeda.

The House also unanimously approved a second GOP amendment that condemns anti-Semitism, which came in the wake of tweets widely viewed as anti-Semitic from Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. The freshman lawmaker apologized for the tweets. The GOP added that amendment after it invoked a procedural vote that is commonly used by the minority party but is rarely successful.

In the previous Senate vote in December, 14 Republican senators joined with every member of the Democratic caucus to take a procedural step on a Yemen bill that was seen as a rebuke to the administration. Seven Republicans voted to actually pass the resolution in the Senate, but in the House the GOP used its then-majority to block it from coming to a vote in that chamber.

It wasn't clear Wednesday when the Senate might vote. If all 47 Democrats vote along party lines, they would need some Republican support for the measure to clear the chamber.

Even if the measure were to clear the Senate, it would likely face a veto from Mr. Trump. Trump administration officials have long argued that withdrawing U.S. support for the Saudi-led effort in Yemen would only harm the international effort to end the fighting—and hurt U.S. interests by yielding to Iran.

Facing a veto from Mr. Trump, proponents hope that a war-powers resolution clearing both chambers of Congress—albeit with another vote in the Senate still to come—sends a powerful message that lawmakers have little appetite for wars started without their approval.

"It's a warning not to get into future conflicts…without coming to Congress," Mr. Khanna said.