Saudi-led coalition launches anti-Houthi offensive in Yemeni capital

Saudi-led coalition launches anti-Houthi offensive in Yemeni capital
A military operation targeting Houthi positions in Sanaa has commenced, the Saudi-led coalition said on Saturday.
3 min read
20 July, 2019
Thousands of civilians have been killed in Saudi-led coalition airstrikes [AFP]
The Saudi-led coalition said it started an operation to target military positions in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, state TV reported early on Saturday.

The targets included air defence sites and ballistic missile depots, it added.

The move came just days after the Saudi military on Wednesday said that its air defences intercepted a drone launched from over the kingdom's southern border with Yemen by Houthi rebels, the latest in an uptick in rebel attacks.

Col. Turki al-Maliki, a military spokesman, was quoted in the state-run Saudi Press Agency as saying the drone was launched by the Houthi rebels from Yemen's governorate of Sanaa toward the Saudi city of Jizan.

Yemen's Houthi rebel movement had earlier said on Facebook that it had launched a drone attack on Jizan airport, which it claimed had disrupted airport operations.

Late on Tuesday, al-Maliki had announced the interception of three other Houthi drones launched at Saudi cities near Yemen's border.

Bomb-laden drones launched by the Houthis have killed a civilian and wounded others in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are both leading countries in a military coalition that was formed to fight Houthi rebels in Yemen and reinstate the internationally recognised government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

The controversial coalition has been blamed for more than half of Yemen’s death toll, which exacerbated when it intervened in March 2015.

The fighting has triggered what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with millions of people displaced and in need of aid.

"The Saudi-led coalition does not have a great track record when it comes to precision strikes and avoiding civilian casualty - especially in Sanaa. This new offensive is a great cause of concern for millions at the recieving end," Sana Uqba, The New Arab's Yemen analyst said. 

UN envoy Martin Griffiths on Monday said he held "productive" talks with the Saudi deputy defence minister aimed at bolstering a ceasefire agreement for Yemen.

Read more: Comment: The UAE's 'withdrawal' from Yemen is merely an illusion

"We discussed how to keep Yemen out of the regional tensions, make progress in the implementation of the Stockholm agreement (and Saudi Arabia's) support to the peace process," Griffiths wrote on Twitter.

The meeting with Prince Khaled bin Salman came as representatives from Yemen's Saudi-backed government and Houthi rebels held talks on a UN vessel off the Yemeni coast to try to de-escalate tensions.

The hard-won truce agreement reached late last year in Sweden called on the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels to pull forces out of the key port of Hodeida and parts of the city.

The pullback was supposed to have taken place two weeks after the ceasefire went into force on 18 December, but that deadline was missed.

In May, the UN announced the rebels had withdrawn from Hodeida and two other nearby ports, the first practical step on the ground since the ceasefire deal. But the government accused the militia of faking the pullout, saying it had merely handed control to allies.

On Monday, at the end of two days of talks - the first since February - a committee set up under the Sweden accord, also known as the Stockholm agreement, said it had agreed on "a mechanism and new measures to reinforce the ceasefire".

The mechanism would be put in place as soon as possible with support from the UN which is part of the committee along with representatives of the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels, a statement said.

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