Coalition forces destroy explosive-laden UAV
RIYADH: The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen announced that it has intercepted and destroyed on Friday a bomb-laden UAV launched systematically and deliberately by the terrorist Houthi militia to target civilians and civilian objects in the Southern Region.
The Official spokesman of the Coalition, Brigadier General Turki Al Malki, said the bomb-laden UAV was launched to target civilians and civilian objects in the Southern Region.
Meanwhile, at least eight people were killed in the shelling of an industrial compound in Yemen’s strategic port of Hodeidah, the government said on Friday, pointing the finger at the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
There has been an uptick in fighting in and around the lifeline port of the western city, where a fragile Un-brokered truce has largely averted major batles between the government and the Houthi insurgents.
Yemeni Information Minister Moammar Al Eryani condemned the Houthis’ “ugly terrorist atack” on the Thabit Brothers industrial compound on Thursday, according to the official Saba news agency.
He said that eight workers were killed and 13 others were injured, while medical sources said there were at least 10 deaths.
The United Nations Mission to support the Hodeida Agreement (UNMHA) also condemned the incident. “The killing of civilians must stop,” it said on Thursday, urging all parties to maintain the ceasefire.
“In addition to being a working factory servicing the population and providing employment, the site of the industrial complex is being considered as one of the possible locations of an UNMHA office,” it said.
The United Nations said that a total of 74 civilians were killed or wounded in Hodeidah province in October as hostilities escalated.
And in late November, five children were among eight civilians killed in rebel shelling of the government-held district of Al Durayhimi on the Red Sea coast.
Yemen, which since 2014 has been gripped by a war between Iran-backed Huthi rebels and a beleaguered government supported by the coalition, faces the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The UN said on Thursday that malnutrition has now hit record levels, narrowing the window of opportunity to prevent a famine as the coronavirus and funding shorfalls threaten a humanitarian perfect storm.
The number of people facing the secondhighest level of food insecurity in Yemen is set to increase from 3.6 million people to 5 million in the first half of 2021, the United Nations World Food Programme warned.