Al Mukalla: Fighter jets from the Saudi-led coalition have killed a number of Al Houthi field leaders who were holding a meeting at government building in the southern province of Shabwa, local government and security officials said on Monday.
An aide to the governor of Shabwa told Gulf News on Monday afternoon that Al Houthi leaders were inside Civil Status Department in Bayhan town when a fighter jet began bombing it. “ The building was completely destroyed and the air strike killed all Al Houthi leaders.
“Witnesses who alerted Gulf News about the incident believed there are no survivors,” the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief reporters.
The Bayhan district is the last Al Houthi bastion in the province of Shabwa.
The official said that a number of ambulances were seen rushing to the targeted building and Al Houthi armed men sealed off roads to Bayhan’s main hospital and prevented patients from leaving or visiting the hospital.
“The leaders came from outside the province to inspect military activities in Shabwa,” the official said, adding that rebels sent ambulances from Dhamar hospital to transport the dead.
Al Houthi official media said the air strike also killed two journalists who were inside the building.
A Saudi-led Arab coalition entered the Yemen conflict in 2015 after an Al Houthi coup against the legitimate government of Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Hadi came to power in early 2012 after massive Arab Spring protests ousted former president Ali Abdullah Saleh who ruled Yemen for over 30 years.
He was forced to decamp to the city of Aden after escaping Al Houthi-imposed house arrest after the rebels took over the government in a coup in 2014.
Since then, Hadi shifted government headquarters to Aden from where he has led an offensive to liberate Al Houthi-occupied territories.
With help from the Saudi-led Arab coalition, it has achieved widespread gains in many provinces, but Al Houthi’s still control the capital Sana’a and most northern provinces including Hodeidah, Ibb, Mahweet, Yareem, Amran, Baydha and Hajja.
