Houthi weapons workshops hit in Sanaa air strikes, says coalition
The Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting the Houthi rebels in Yemen says it has launched air strikes on military targets in the capital, Sanaa, and the north-western city of Saada.
A weapons depot and one of the main Houthi supply lines in Sanaa were among the targets of the strikes, the coalition said in a statement reported by state news agency SPA early on Thursday.
The coalition also said it destroyed Houthi workshops in Saada where ballistic missiles and drones were assembled.
The Iran-backed Houthis have repeatedly launched cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia using drones and missiles.
The coalition has given support to the internationally recognised government since March 2015, after the rebels seized Sanaa. Its strikes on Houthi sites in the capital have increased in recent days.
On Wednesday, the coalition said it destroyed an explosives-laden boat launched by the Houthis from Hodeidah on Yemen’s Red Sea coast. Earlier, a drone was destroyed after it took off from Sanaa airport.
On Tuesday, the coalition said it launched a strike on a site that belonged to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Battles between government forces and the rebels have intensified in the northern city of Marib, the government’s last northern bastion.
Marib, about 170 kilometres east of Sanaa, is at a crossroads between the southern and northern regions of the country and is linked by motorway to Saudi Arabia.
Marib province has oil and gasfields, making it a major prize.
The city’s population has grown as displaced people have migrated there.
The fighting has forced large numbers of them to flee to makeshift desert camps.