Saudi-led alliance and Yemen’s rebels trade blame for escalation

THE Saudi-led coalition and Yemen’s Iran-linked rebels on Thursday blamed each other for an escalation of violence the day after the Saudi-led alliance launched a military campaign in the war-torn country.

Yemen has been locked in a devastating power struggle between the Saudi-supported government and Houthi rebels since late 2014.

On Wednesday, the Saudiled alliance mounted a military operation against the Houthis in retaliation for a series of missiles fired by the rebels into the oil-rich monarchy bordering Yemen.

An alliance official said on Thursday the operation targeted ballistic missiles and drones fired by the Houthis from rebel-controlled Sana’a at Saudi Arabia. The coalition’s spokesman Turki alMalki vowed that the alliance, which has been fighting the Houthis in Yemen since March 2015, would retaliate against any new attack on Saudi Arabia.

“Civilians and civil installations are a red line,” he added, according to the Saudi state news agency SPA.

Local witnesses said the coalition also carried out dozens of strikes in Sana’a and other rebelheld areas in Yemen on Wednesday. The rebels’ self-styled Ministry of Human Rights said the strikes had hit houses and hospitals, killing at least two civilians and injuring six others in the northern province of Saada, a Houthi stronghold.

The bombardment also targeted medical supply warehouses of a hospital in Sana’a, the ministry said, without reporting casualties. Saudi Arabia fears the rebels are giving its regional rival, Iran, a strategic foothold in the Arabian Peninsula.