Airstrikes flatten Sanaa presidency building
sanaa — Airstrikes by the Saudiled coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted the presidency building in the heart of the capital on Monday, leaving at least six people dead and 30 wounded, according to health officials.
The coalition, which entered Yemen’s war in 2015 to push back Houthi fighters, said it had meant to hit senior Houthi leaders.
“First and second rank Houthi leadership were targeted,” coalition spokesman Colonel Turki Al Malki said in Riyadh, without confirming any casualties.
Abu Dhabi-based Sky News Arabia said two Houthi leaders, including Mohammed Ali Al Houthi, the head of the group’s supreme revolutionary committee, were inside the palace at the time, but did not say what happened to them. —
sanaa — Two air raids targeted the office of the presidency in Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa on Monday, leaving at least six people killed and 30 wounded, a medical source said.
Witnesses said the office, used by the Houthi militant administration and located in the Tahrir district of Sanaa, is normally bustling with employees.
Residents said they heard two powerful explosions hit the building, which is located near a hotel, a bank and shops, and not far from the central bank.
“We were working next door to the presidential offices and heard a plane, and then an explosion,” Ahmed Dehashir, a first responder, said at the scene of the attack.
The coalition could not immediately be reached for comment.
The strikes came hours after Saudi Arabia’s air defences intercepted two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthis that targeted the south of the kingdom, said coalition spokesman Colonel Turki Al Malki.
He said the rockets were launched from northern Yemen toward “populated areas” of Saudi Arabia, but were intercepted overnight without any casualties or damage.
“This hostile act... proves the continued involvement of the Iranian regime in supporting the Houthi militia with qualitative capabilities,” Al Malki added.
Since November of last year, the Iran-backed militants have intensified missile attacks into neighbouring Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-led coalition launched an operation in Yemen in 2015 with the goal of rolling back the Houthis and restoring the internationally-recognised government to power.
The conflict has left nearly 10,000 people killed, tens of thousands wounded, and millions on the brink of famine in what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. —
This hostile act... proves the continued involvement of the Iranian regime in supporting the Houthi militia with qualitative capabilities.
Colonel Turki Al Malki, Arab Coalition spokesman