Saudi Arabia Airstrikes Against Houthi Rebels Hit Sanaa Airport As Civilians Scramble For Aid
Overnight, Saudi Arabia and several mostly Persian Gulf coalition partners continued to bombard Houthi targets while the Shiite rebel group advanced in the southern Yemen city of Aden, a former stronghold of exiled Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Airstrikes hit several Houthi targets, including army bases and various civilian buildings thought to be turned into weapons depots, the Associated Press reported. A Saudi Arabian soldier stationed on the border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen was also killed in clashes overnight, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.
Meanwhile, Houthi rebels also battled Yemeni tribesman in the oil-rich Marib province on Monday, leaving at least 15 people killed, Reuters reported. Houthis claim their advances in the province are aimed at eradicating militants from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the terrorist organization’s branch in Yemen, who have a solid presence in the area.
Clashes between the Saudi-led coalition and Iran-backed Houthi militants began in late March and have since turned Yemen into a “humanitarian catastrophe,” officials from aid organizations said. At least 115 children have been killed, 172 injured and at least 140 have been recruited by armed factions in the country since the Saudi-led coalition began bombing the country last month, Unicef said.
“There are hundreds of thousands of children in Yemen who continue to live in the most dangerous circumstances, many waking up scared in the middle of the night to the sounds of bombing and gunfire,” Julien Harneis, Unicef’s representative to Yemen, said last week. “The number of child casualties shows clearly how devastating this conflict continues to be for the country’s children. Without a speedy end to the violence, children will be unable to lead normal lives.”