‘Dozens’ of Huthis killed in Saudi-led strike
A SAUDI-LEF coalition airstrike has killed dozens of Yemeni rebels including two commanders, state media said on Saturday, in another blow to the insurgents following the assassination of their political chief.
The Huthi rebels staged a public funeral on Saturday for Saleh al-Sammad, head of their Supreme Political Council and effectively the insurgents’ secondin-command, who was killed last week in an air raid claimed by Saudi Arabia and its allies.His funeral came hours after Saudi Arabia’s state-run Al-Ekhbariya television said two high-ranking insurgents were among more than 50 Huthis killed in a new strike overnight in the capital Sanaa.
In a speech eulogising Sammad on Saturday night, rebel chief Abdul Malik alHuthi claimed Saudi Arabia and its allies had targeted the outskirts of Sabaeen Square as Huthi supporters gathered for Sammad’s funeral.
The rebels’ Al-Masirah television aired footage of black columns of smoke billowing outside the square, whereYemenis chanted slogans calling for the demise of Saudi Arabia and the United States. The date of the footage could not be immediately verified. The rebels have been locked in a war since 2015 with a Saudi-led military alliance fighting to restore the internationally recognised Yemeni government to power.
Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television said the overnight strike had targeted the interior ministry in Sanaa, which is controlled by the rebels.
The Huthis, backed by Saudi Arabia’s regional arch-rival Iran, confirmed the airstrike on Sanaa but gave no details.
The Huthi leader slammed Saudi Arabia and its allies, primarily the United Arab Emirates, for operating “under the umbrella” of the United States and Israel, saying Sammad’s death was “added incentive” for the rebels.
The Huthis, who hail from northern Yemen, control Sanaa and much of the country’s north – which borders Saudi Arabia – and the key Hodeida port on the Red Sea coast.
Shortly after Sammad’s funeral began, the Huthis said they had launched eight ballistic missiles into the Sunni kingdom. The coalition confirmed it had intercepted four missiles headed for the southern Saudi coastal city of Jizan, one day after the kingdom’s defence forces said they had downed a missile headed for the same area.
While the coalition statement said the attack claimed no casualties, Jizan’s civil defence spokesman ColonelYahya Abdullah al-Qahtani told Al-Arabiya that a Saudi Arabian citizen had been killed by falling shrapnel.
Nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the Saudi-led alliance joined the Yemen conflict, triggering what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Yemen now stands on the brink of famine.
The Saudi-led coalition imposed a total blockade on Yemen’s ports in November in retaliation for cross-border Huthi missile attacks on Saudi Arabia. The blockade has since been partially lifted, but access to the impoverished country remains limited.