Saudi coalition launch fresh Yemen strikes

The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen has carried out air strikes on capital Sana'a as retaliation for Houthi drone attacks on Saudi oil installations.

Air strikes in Yemen

The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen has carried out air strikes on capital Sana'a. (AAP)

The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen has carried out air strikes on the Houthi-held capital Sana'a after the Iran-aligned movement claimed responsibility for drone attacks on Saudi oil installations.

The strikes on Thursday targeted nine military sites in and around the city.

Rubble filled a populated street lined by mud-brick houses, a Reuters journalist on the scene said. A crowd of men lifted the body of a women, wrapped in a white shroud, into an ambulance.

The Houthi-run Masirah TV quoted the Houthi health ministry as saying six civilians, including four children, had been killed and 52 wounded, including two Russian women working in the health sector.

A coalition statement carried by Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV said the Sunni Muslim alliance struck military bases and facilities and weapons storage sites.

"The sorties achieved its goals with full precision," the coalition said, having urged civilians to avoid those targets.

Sana'a has been held by the Houthi movement since it ousted the internationally recognised government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi from power in 2014.

Saudi Arabia's deputy defence minister on Thursday accused Iran of ordering Tuesday's armed drone attack on two oil pumping stations in the kingdom.

"The terrorist acts, ordered by the regime in Tehran and carried out by the Houthis, are tightening the noose around the ongoing political efforts," Prince Khalid bin Salman tweeted.

The Houthis said they were responsible for the attack, which did not disrupt oil output or exports. The group denies being a puppet of Tehran.

The coalition described the drone attack as a "war crime".

The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday that the Western-backed coalition, of which it is a main member, would "retaliate hard" for any Houthi attacks on coalition targets.

The Sana'a air strikes and renewed fighting in Yemen's Hodeidah port - which breached a UN-sponsored truce in the Red Sea city - could complicate peace efforts to end the four-year war that has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed the country to the brink of famine.

The coalition, which receives arms and intelligence from Western nations, intervened in Yemen in 2015 to try to restore Hadi's Aden-based government.


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Published 16 May 2019 10:42pm
Source: AAP


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