Sanaa : Saudi-led coalition warplanes pounded Yemen’s Shiite rebels for a sixth day, destroying missiles and weapons depots and for the first time using warships to bomb the rebel-held airport and eastern outskirts of the port city of Aden. The airstrikes’ campaign by Sunni Arab states is meant to halt the advance by the Shiite rebels known as the Houthis who have overrun the country and forced Yemen’s president to flee abroad. Overnight and into early hours today, the coalition bombed the Iran-backed rebels around the capital, Sanaa, according to Yemeni military officials. The strikes targeted Houthi positions, as well as weapons depots controlled by the rebels.
[alert type=”e.g. warning, danger, success, info” title=””] A Yemeni boy holds a portrait of Shiite Houthi rebels’ leader, Abdulmalik al-Huthi, as he takes part in a rally in Sanaa, onTuesday to protest against the Saudi-led Arab coalition which is carrying out air strikes on Houthi
militia targets across the country. Iran warned that the Saudi “attack” on Yemen endangered the whole region,
calling for an immediate halt to the military operation against Shiite rebels. [/alert]
Iran sends aid: Tehran said it sent an aid shipment to Yemen, according to the official IRNA news agency Tehran’s first such delivery since the Saudi-led airstrikes started last Thursday.
The aid contained 19 tons of medicines and medical equipment and two tons of food provided by the Iranian Red Crescent, IRNA said. The agency reported that the aid was delivered by air early Tuesday but did not say where the cargo landed. The coalition has bombed a number of rebel-held airports and has announced it is in full control of Yemen’s airspace.
The conflict in Yemen marks a major escalation in the regional struggle for influence between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which also back rival sides in Syria’s civil war. Arab leaders unveiled plans at a conference Sunday in Egypt to form a joint military intervention force for Yemen, which could raise tensions further. Critics of the Houthis charge that they are an Iranian proxy. Iran has provided aid to the rebels, but both Tehran and the Houthis deny it has armed them. Iran reiterated those denials on Tuesday.
