Airstrikes target rebels in Yemen
Coalition retaliates for Saudi oil depot attack; 8 people die
SANAA, Yemen — A Saudi-led coalition fighting Iranbacked Houthi rebels in Yemen unleashed a barrage of airstrikes on the capital and a strategic Red Sea city, officials said Saturday. At least eight people were killed.
The overnight airstrikes on Sanaa and Hodeida, both held by the Houthis — came a day after the rebels attacked an oil depot in the Saudi city of Jiddah, their highest-profile assault yet on the kingdom.
Brig. Gen. Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said the strikes targeted “sources of threat” to Saudi Arabia, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.
He said the coalition intercepted and destroyed two explosives-laden drones early Saturday. He said the drones were launched from Houthi-held civilian oil facilities in Hodeida, urging civilians to stay away from oil facilities in the city.
Footage circulated online showed flames and plumes of smoke over Sanaa and Hodeida. Associated Press journalists in the Yemeni capital heard loud explosions that rattled residential buildings there.
The Houthis said the coalition airstrikes hit a power plant, a fuel supply station and the state-run social insurance office in the capital.
A Houthi media office claimed an airstrike hit houses for guards of the social insurance office in Sanaa’s Haddah neighborhood, killing at least eight people and wounding four others, including women and children.
The office shared images it said was for the aftermath of the airstrike. It showed
wreckage in the courtyard of a social insurance office with the shattered windows of a nearby multiple-story building.
Hamoud Abbad, a local official with the Houthis in Sanaa, said the facility is located close to a building used by the U.N. agencies in the capital. He claimed that U.N. vehicles were seen leaving the area before the airstrikes.
In Hodeida, the Houthi media office said the coalition hit oil facilities in violation of a 2018 cease-fire deal that ended months of fighting in the city, which handles about 70% of Yemen’s commercial and humanitarian imports. The strikes also hit the nearby Port Salif, also on the Red Sea.
Al-Malki, the coalition spokesperson, said it targeted drones being prepared in Hodeida to be launched on Saudi Arabi. He accused the Houthis of using civilian infrastructure, such as Hodeida’s
ports and the Sanaa airport, to launch attacks on Saudi oil facilities, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
Late Wednesday, coalition airstrikes rained on Houthi-held areas in Hodeida, al-Malki announced. No immediate casualties were reported.
A U.N. mission overseeing the Hodeida deal voiced concern about the airstrikes and urged warring sides to “maintain the civilian nature of the ports and avoid damage to civilian infrastructure.”
“Once again we are seeing civilians bearing the brunt of this conflict which is just getting worse every year,” said Erin Hutchinson, Yemen director at the Norwegian Refugee Council, a charity working in Yemen. “This escalation is going to do nothing to elevate the hardships that millions are going through.”
The Houthis also announced Saturday a unilit
eral initiative that included a three-day suspension of cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia, as well as fighting inside Yemen. They demanded an end to the coalition air and sea blockade on their territories before engaging in negotiations.
Peter Salisbury, Yemen expert at the International Crisis Group, doubted that ongoing efforts will succeed in bringing a peaceful settlement to the grinding war in the near future, given that international attention is now focusing on other crises including the war in Ukraine.
“I really wouldn’t buy into any optimism we’ll see diplomatic progress in 2022,” he said. “It’s pretty clear that all parties are still looking for ways to either win outright or cause significant damage to their rivals.”