A Saudi-led coalition struck northern provinces of Yemen on Saturday in a third consecutive night of heavy air strikes, the Houthi rebels said, following their shelling this week of Saudi border areas.
The air strikes follow an announcement from Saudi Arabia on Friday it would halt its bombing campaign in Yemen for five days beginning on Tuesday, in a sign that it was bowing to international pressure to ease a worsening humanitarian crisis in a country battered by weeks of war.
More than 100 air strikes hit areas of Saada and Hajjah provinces on Saturday, including the districts of Haradh, Maidi and Bakil al-Mir, the Houthis said.
It was not possible to independently verify the number or location of strikes but coalition jets destroyed a Houthi headquarters in al-Talah and tanks and military vehicles in al-Baqah in Saada province, Saudi state television reported.
Other strikes targeted Sanaa airport’s runway, an official there said, and Houthi targets in the al-Sadda district of Ibb in central Yemen, residents there said.
In the southern port city of Aden, clashes continued on Friday and Saturday in the central Crater, Khor Maksar and Mualla districts as the Houthis and forces loyal to Saleh shelled local militias trying to oust them from the city.
However, the Houthis were pushed back from parts of Dar al-Saad in the city’s north into Lahj Province, local militias send, and faced fighting in al-Dhala Province.
Fears of proxy war
The coalition has bombarded the Houthis and army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh since March 26th, but eased back on the strikes in late April and on Friday offered a five-day truce starting on May 12th if other parties agreed.
The Saudis and nine other Arab countries, backed by the United States, Britain and France, hoped to force the Houthis back to their northern heartland and restore the exiled government of president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is in Riyadh.
Riyadh fears the Houthis will act as a proxy for their main regional rival, Shi'ite Iran, to undermine Saudi security, and that their advance into Sunni regions will add a sectarian edge to the civil war, strengthening an al Qaeda group in Yemen.
Iran and the Houthis deny they are funding, arming or training efforts by Tehran, and regional analysts say the rebel group is unlikely ever to become an all-out proxy for the Islamic Republic in the mould of Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani on Saturday said the campaign was the work of an “inexperienced” government that did not understand the region’s politics.
Saudi Arabia, has faced mounting pressure from the Obama administration to pursue a negotiated solution to what has become an open-ended conflict, killing more than 1,200 people and threatening to destabilise the region beyond Yemen’s borders.
Agencies