Sana’a: A series of pre-dawn air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition on Sunday targeted the headquarters of Yemen’s armed forces in the militia-held capital, Sana’a, causing heavy destruction to the facility, security officials said.
They said the air strikes damaged several nearby homes and the entire city shook from the blasts. At least 22 people were killed, but Al Houthis put the number at 45. Security and health officials, said the dead were mostly soldiers and that the air strikes damaged several nearby homes and shook the entire city. Residents said the armed forces’ headquarters, a short distance away from the city centre, was hit by at least three air strikes.
The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The US-backed coalition began launching air strikes on March 26 against the Iranian-backed militants, known as Al Houthis, and their allies in the military and security forces. Al Houthis seized Sana’a in September and later captured much of northern Yemen before advancing on the south in March.
Their advance on the south forced internationally recognized President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee Sana’a and take sanctuary in the southern port city of Aden. He fled to neighboring Saudi Arabia in March.
Sunday’s air strikes came one day after Al Houthis fired a Scud missile into Saudi Arabia, a dramatic escalation of the conflict. The attack indicated that despite more than two months of coalition air strikes the militants still pose a threat to cities across the border inside Saudi Arabia.
The official Saudi Press Agency said two missiles launched from a Patriot missile battery shot down the Scud before dawn near the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait. The agency did not report any casualties in the attack, the first use of a Cold War-era Scud by the militants since the air strikes began in late March.
Yemen’s state news agency SABA, now controlled by Al Houthis, acknowledged that the militants fired the Scud. Khamis Mushait is home to the King Khalid Air Base, the largest such facility in that part of the country.
The Yemeni military was widely believed to possess around 300 Scud missiles, most of which fell into the hands of the militants. In April, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Saudi Brig. Gen. Ahmad Assiri, implied that the Scud arsenal in Yemen had been seriously degraded as a result of the air strikes.
The escalation of the violence came despite progress toward convening United Nations-backed peace talks this month in Geneva. The exiled Yemeni government in Riyadh and Al Houthis have agreed to attend the talks which start on June 14.
United Nations special envoy to Yemen, Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad was in Oman for talks with the Omani minister of state for foreign affairs aimed at preparing for the Geneva meeting, Omani state news agency ONA reported on Saturday. Oman had been mediating efforts to convene the Geneva talks.
Residents said Saudi-led aircraft also targeted other military camps east and west of the capital but there was no immediate word on casualties.
