Saudi-led air strikes target Yemen rebels before start of ceasefire
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Version 0 of 1. Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition have kept up their air strikes in Yemen, targeting the positions of Shia rebels and their allies hours before the scheduled start of a five-day humanitarian ceasefire. The strikes stopped shortly before the new UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, flew into the capital, Sana’a, on his first official visit to the country. He told reporters he planned to meet with various parties, including the rebel Houthis, and ensure that the ceasefire holds. “We will discuss the humanitarian truce and the Yemeni parties’ return to the negotiating table,” he said. Security officials said air strikes overnight, at dawn and during the morning hours of Tuesday, targeted weapons depots and other military facilities north and south of Sana’a, a sprawling city of 4 million people. The military air base that is part of the capital’s international airport also was targeted. Ten strikes hit Sana’a from dawn until about noon on Tuesday, the officials said. Fierce fighting also raged on Tuesday in Taiz between the rebels and forces loyal to exiled president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, officials said. The rebels and their allies also shelled residential areas in the strategic city south-west of Sana’a, with one shell hitting a bus, killing nine people and wounding 40, officials said. An air strike targeted the city’s al-Qahira castle, from which the shelling came, they said. The ceasefire, scheduled to begin at 11pm, is meant to help ease the suffering of civilians in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country. More than 1,400 people – many of them civilians – have died in the conflict since 19 March, according to the UN The country of 25 million people has endured shortages of food, water, medicine and electricity as a result of a Saudi-led naval, air and land blockade. Anticipating the truce, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said it planned to airlift 300tonnes of sleeping mats, blankets, kitchen sets and plastic sheeting from stockpiles in Dubai. The airlift, it said, was part of what it called a “larger aid mobilisation underway for a quarter of a million people”. The agency also will attempt to distribute aid already stored in Yemen and assess the needs for areas that have been difficult to reach. Separately, the UN World Food Programme said it was ready to provide emergency food rations to more than 750,000 people. A WFP-chartered vessel arrived in the Yemeni Red Sea port of Hodeida on Saturday, carrying 250,000 litres of fuel and supplies for other humanitarian agencies. A second vessel was ready to dock with an additional 120,000 litres of fuel. Tuesday’s air strikes came one day after the coalition pounded a mountainside on the north-eastern edge of Sana’a, hitting arms and ammunition depots. The bombardment shook the entire city, causing some homes to collapse. Munitions also hit residential areas, starting fires. The Houthi-held health ministry said Monday’s air strikes killed 69 people and wounded more than 100, mostly civilians. Among the dead were eight members of one family, said survivor and family member Mohammed al-Watary. He said three of his younger siblings – ages three to seven – were killed when a rocket from an ammunition depot smashed into the extended family’s home. Also killed were five female relatives. His mother and two female relatives were badly wounded, he said. Officials said the strikes were among the strongest in Sana’a since the Saudi-led air campaign began 26 March against the Houthi rebels and their allies in the army and security forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. |