Saudi leads airstrikes in Yemen
Print Edition
Warplanes from Saudi Arabia and Arab allies struck Shiite Muslim rebels fighting to oust Yemen’s president yesterday, a gamble by the world’s top oil exporter to check Iranian influence in its backyard without direct military backing from Washington.
Riyadh’s rival Iran denounced the assault on the Houthi militia group, which it backs, and made clear the kingdom’s deployment of a Sunni coalition against Shiite enemies would complicate efforts to end a conflict likely to inflame the sectarian animosities fuelling wars around the Middle East.
But a senior Iranian official ruled out military intervention.
Warplanes bombed the main airport and the nearby al Dulaimi military air base of the Houthi-held capital Sanaa, residents said, in an apparent attempt to weaken the Houthis’ air power and ability to fire missiles.
A Reuters witness said four or five houses near Sanaa airport had been damaged. Rescue workers put the death toll from the airstrikes at 13, including a doctor who had been pulled from the rubble of a damaged clinic.
Warplanes struck Houthi fighters near Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia, tribal and Houthi sources told Reuters.
Yemen’s crisis is escalating, with Iran backing the Houthis, and Sunni Muslim monarchies in the Gulf supporting Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his fellow Sunni loyalists in Yemen’s south.
In Aden, fighters loyal to Hadi retook the airport, according to the report from a local official, a day after it was captured by forces allied to the Houthis advancing on the city.
Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV reported that the kingdom was contributing 100 warplanes to operation “Storm of Resolve” and more than 85 were provided by the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco and Sudan.
Yemen’s slide towards civil war has made it a crucial front in Saudi Arabia’s rivalry with Tehran, which Riyadh accuses of stirring up sectarian strife throughout the region and in Yemen with its support for the Houthis.
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