SANAA, YEMEN (AP) – A coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen unleashed a barrage of airstrikes on the capital and a strategic Red Sea city, officials said yesterday. At least seven people were killed.
The overnight airstrikes on Sanaa and Hodeida – both held by the Houthis – came a day after the rebels attacked an oil depot in the Saudi city of Jeddah, their highest-profile assault yet on the Kingdom.
A spokesman for the coalition Brigardier General Turki al-Malki said the strikes targetted “sources of threat“ to Saudi Arabia, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.
He said the coalition intercepted and destroyed two explosives-laden drones early yesterday.
He said the drones were launched from Houthi-held oil facilities in Hodeida, urging civilians to stay away from oil facilities in the city.
Footage circulated online showed flames and plumes of smoke over Sanaa and Hodeida.
The escalation is likely to complicate efforts by the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to reach a humanitarian truce during the month of Ramadhan in early April.
It comes as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) plans to host talks late this month. The Houthis however have rejected Riyadh – the Saudi capital where the GCC is headquartered – as a venue for talks, which are expected to include an array of Yemeni factions.
Yemen’s brutal war erupted in 2014 after the Houthis seized Sanaa. Months later, the coalition launched a devastating air campaign to dislodge the Houthis and restore the internationally recognised government.
The conflict has in recent years become a regional proxy war that has killed more than 150,000 people, including over 14,500 civilians. It also created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
Friday’s attack targetted the same fuel depot that the Houthis had attacked in recent days – the North Jeddah Bulk Plant that sits just southeast of the city’s international airport and is a crucial hub for Muslim pilgrims heading to Makkah.
In Egypt, hundreds of passengers were stranded at Cairo International Airport after their Jeddah-bound flights were cancelled because of the Houthi attack, according to airport officials.
The kingdom’s flagship carrier Saudia announced the cancellation of two flights on its website. The two had 456 passengers booked.
