Saudi warplanes bomb Yemeni capital over oil pipeline attack
US-IRAN TENSIONS Six killed in air strikes in Sanaa; Iran minister calls US escalation ‘unacceptable’
Saudi-led coalition warplanes bombed Yemeni rebel targets including in the capital on Thursday following insurgent drone strikes on a key oil pipeline that Riyadh said were ordered by its arch rival Tehran.
As many as six people lost their lives while several others, including two Russian women, were wounded in the air strikes.
The new bombardment came after the UN envoy, who has been spearheading efforts to end more than four years of conflict in the Arab world’s poorest country, warned it still faced the threat of plunging into all-out war.
The Saudi deputy defence minister warned that Tuesday’s attack by Yemeni rebels on a major pipeline in the kingdom was “tightening the noose” around peace efforts.
The Saudi-led coalition, which has been battling the Houthi rebels since March 2015, confirmed that its warplanes were carrying out multiple strikes across rebel-held territory.
The coalition carried out 11 strikes on the capital in all, among 19 across rebel-held territory, the rebels’ Al-Masirah television reported.
The rebels said their attack on the Saudi pipeline was a response to “crimes” committed by Riyadh during its bloody air war in Yemen, that has been criticised repeatedly by the United Nations and human rights groups.
Saudi Arabia’s deputy defence minister, Khalid bin Salman, claimed the pipeline attack was carried out on Iranian orders.
“The attack by the Iranianbacked Houthi militias against the two Aramco pumping stations proves that these militias are merely a tool that Iran’s regime uses to implement its expansionist agenda in the region,” the prince said.
Iran on Thursday accused the US of an “unacceptable” escalation of tensions. “The escalation by the US is unacceptable,” Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in Tokyo where he is holding talks with Japanese officials.