The Saudi-led coalition carried out a new wave of air strikes in Yemen early on Sunday, Saudi media said.
Its response was part of a stepped up air campaign to suppress Houthi drone and missile attacks against civilian infrastructure in the kingdom, the reports said.
Sanaa, Yemen’s rebel-held capital, was one target of the raids, according to Saudi broadcaster Al Ekhbariya TV. It tweeted that “the start of air strikes on Houthi camps and strongholds in Sanaa” occurred at about midnight.
The attacks began shortly after the Iran-backed Houthis announced a three-day truce and offered peace talks on condition that the Saudi Arabians remove “foreign forces” and stop their air strikes and blockade of Yemen.
Saudi Arabia has the largest air force in the Middle East, with an inventory of more than 360 combat aircraft, including about 200 F-15 fighter-bombers.
Rebel reports of casualties could not be independently confirmed.
The Houthi truce followed a wave of drone and missile attacks on targets in the kingdom on Friday, including an oil depot near Jeddah.
On Saturday, Brig Gen Turki Al Malki, spokesman for the coalition, said the overnight strikes’ target was the “sources of threat” to the kingdom, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.
He said the coalition had intercepted and destroyed two explosives-laden drones that were launched from Houthi-held civilian oil facilities in Hodeidah.
The US, EU and the Arab League condemned the attacks.
In the region, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced “terrorist attacks targeting the kingdom’s territory and its vital and civilian facilities and installations,” including water infrastructure.
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation called the attacks a “challenge to the international community and the efforts made to end the Yemeni crisis as well as a disregard for all international laws and norms”.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the attacks “criminal” and pledged support to Saudi Arabia to stop “terrorist attacks.”
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett expressed his country’s “sorrow” for the kingdom and said the attacks were “further proof that Iran’s regional aggression knows no bounds”.
Iran’s support for the Houthis, which the UN has documented and verified, includes the provision of suicide drones, ballistic and cruise missiles. This point was highlighted by Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry last week.
“The kingdom stresses the importance of the international community being aware of the danger of Iran continuing to provide the terrorist Houthi militias with ballistic missile and advanced drone technologies,” the ministry said.
The Houthis have turned down an invitation to peace talks in Riyadh, scheduled for the coming days, to be hosted by the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council.
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
War
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
Rating: Two out of five stars
India squad for fourth and fifth Tests
Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rahul, Shaw, Pujara, Rahane (vc), Karun, Karthik (wk), Pant (wk), Ashwin, Jadeja, Pandya, Ishant, Shami, Umesh, Bumrah, Thakur, Vihari
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Boyd Tonkin, Galileo Press
NYBL PROFILE
Company name: Nybl
Date started: November 2018
Founder: Noor Alnahhas, Michael LeTan, Hafsa Yazdni, Sufyaan Abdul Haseeb, Waleed Rifaat, Mohammed Shono
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence
Initial investment: $500,000
Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)
Partners/Incubators: Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 4, Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 6, AI Venture Labs Cohort 1, Microsoft Scale-up
Omar Yabroudi's factfile
Born: October 20, 1989, Sharjah
Education: Bachelor of Science and Football, Liverpool John Moores University
2010: Accrington Stanley FC, internship
2010-2012: Crystal Palace, performance analyst with U-18 academy
2012-2015: Barnet FC, first-team performance analyst/head of recruitment
2015-2017: Nottingham Forest, head of recruitment
2018-present: Crystal Palace, player recruitment manager
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Profile
Name: Carzaty
Founders: Marwan Chaar and Hassan Jaffar
Launched: 2017
Employees: 22
Based: Dubai and Muscat
Sector: Automobile retail
Funding to date: $5.5 million
Tips to keep your car cool
- Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
- Park in shaded or covered areas
- Add tint to windows
- Wrap your car to change the exterior colour
- Pick light interiors - choose colours such as beige and cream for seats and dashboard furniture
- Avoid leather interiors as these absorb more heat
South Africa squad
Faf du Plessis (captain), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Theunis de Bruyn, AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen (wicketkeeper), Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada.
