Air strikes rock Sanaa after rebel attack

SANAA — Strong blasts rocked the Yemeni capital Sunday after the Saudi-led coalition vowed to press its air war following a rebel missile strike that killed 60 Gulf soldiers.

The United Arab Emirates had pledged to quickly avenge its heaviest ever military loss after 45 of its soldiers were killed in Friday's missile attack, along with 10 Saudis and five Bahrainis.

The UAE is part of a Saudi-led Arab coalition formed in March to try to reverse the gains of Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels and restore the rule of exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

Sunday's coalition air raids, coinciding with funerals in the Emirates, pounded positions of the rebels and renegade troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Coalition warplanes struck military bases on the capital's Nahdain and Fajj Attan hills and the neighbouring presidential complex, south of Sanaa, as well as headquarters for special forces.

Also targeted were Houthi positions in the northern areas of Sufan and Al Nahda, forcing scores of residents to flee, as well as rebel positions near the Saudi and Emirati embassies, witnesses said.

Sunday's bombardment was one of the heaviest of the six-month-old air campaign.

"The first strike after dawn prayer shook our house," said Sadeq Al Juhayfi, a resident of Al Haffa, southeast of Sanaa, where a military base was targeted.

Normally bustling areas of the capital remained empty and most shops were shuttered.

Streets of Sanaa deserted 

Students taking exams at Abdulrazzaq Al Sanaani high school, in Hadda neighbourhood, said they abandoned their tests and fled.

The streets of Sanaa were largely deserted.

"We usually get hundreds of customers... Today, workers have run away and there are no people in the street," said Kamal Al Majidi, a waiter at a restaurant in Hadda.

Elsewhere, coalition warplanes hit rebel positions in Bayhan, in the southern province of Shabwa, military sources said.

In the neighbouring province of Baida, 27 people were killed — 14 rebels, 10 loyalist fighters and three civilians — in two days of coalition raids on the town of Mukayris, military sources said.

The Houthis said Friday’s missile attack was “revenge” for the six months of deadly air raids, but the coalition vowed there would be no let-up in its air war.

The Houthis, who have long complained of marginalisation, descended from their northern stronghold last year and seized Sanaa unopposed before advancing on second city Aden in March.

The coalition launched the bombing campaign when President Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia in March after the rebels entered his last refuge, Aden.

After loyalists recaptured the southern port in July, the coalition launched a ground operation that has seen the rebels pushed back from five southern provinces.

For the UAE, Friday’s losses were the heaviest for its military since the formation of the federation in 1971 and the oil-rich Gulf state has vowed to retaliate.

‘Purge Yemen of scum’ 

“Our revenge shall not take long,” warned Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed.

“We will press ahead until we purge Yemen of the scum,” he was quoted as saying in Emirati media.

The UAE newspapers displayed images of funerals across the country for the slain soldiers, while schools in Abu Dhabi observed a one-minute silence on Sunday.

National radio and television stations have played music and special Koranic recitals to honour the fallen soldiers.

The Houthis said they had used a Tochka missile to attack the Safer camp in Marib province of eastern Yemen.

Four Yemeni soldiers also died in the Safer attack, the coalition spokesman said Sunday, quoted in Saudi daily Asharq Al Awsat.

The rebels hailed the missile strike as “revenge for the crimes and the war of extermination being carried out by the Saudi aggressor and its mercenaries”.

Loyalist military sources said the coalition had reinforced Safer this week with tanks, armoured vehicles, troop carriers, rocket launchers and Apache helicopters.

More than 4,500 people have been killed in the Yemen conflict, including hundreds of children, according to the United Nations, which has warned that the country is on the brink of famine.